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WINE,  WOMEN,  AND   SONG  '      ■' 


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THE    TAVERN  S    PLEASURES 


WINE,  WOMEN,  AND 
50NG:  MEDIEVAL 
LATIN  STUDENTS' 
SONGS  NOW  FIRST 
TRANSLATED  INTO 
ENGLISH  VERSE  WITH 
AN  ESSAY  BY  JOHN 
ADDINGTON  SYMONDS 


CHATTO  AND  WINDUS,   PUBLISHERS 
LONDON   MCMVII 


i'>0 


•'  WER    LIEBT   NICHT   WEIB   WEIN    PND   GE3ANG 
OER    BLEIBT   EIN    NARR    SEIN    LEBENSLANG. " 

Martin  Luther. 


vi 


Q  0 


TO 

ROBERT  LOUIS   STEVENSON 
Dear  Louis, 

To  you^  in  memory  of  past  symposia^  ivhen  ivit 
(^your  ivit)  fiotved  freer  than  our  old  ForzatOy  I  dedicate 
this  little  bookf  my  pastime  through  three  anxious  months. 

TourSf 

JOHN  ADDINGTON  STMONDS. 


Villa  Emily,  San  Remo, 
May  1884. 


CONTENTS 


NO. 
I. 

2. 

3- 
4- 

5- 

6. 

7- 
8. 

9- 

10. 

1 1. 

12. 

13- 

15- 

1 6. 

17- 
1 8. 

19. 

20. 

21. 


PAGE 


Essay        .... 
On  the  Order   of  Wandering  Students 
On  the  Decay  of  the  Order 
A  Wandering  Student's  Petition 
A  Song  of  the  Open   Road 
The  Confession  of  Golias 
Welcome  to  Spring 
The  Lover  and  the  Nightingale 
The  Invitation  to  Youth 
The  Example  of  the  Rose    . 
The  Vow  to  Cupid 
A-Maying 

The  Return  of  Spring    . 
The  Sweetness  of  the  Spring 
The  Suit  to  Phyllis 
Modest  Love 
The  Serenade  to  Flower-o'-thh-Thorn 
The  Love-Letter  in  Spring 
A  Spring  Ditty 
Love-Doubts 
The  Village  Dance 
Love  among  the  Maidens 

ix 


40 

45 

48 

53 

63 
64 
66 
66 

67 
68 

69 
70 

71 

73 

74 

75 

76 

77 
78 
81 


CONTENTS 


NO. 
22. 

At  the  Village  Dance   . 

PAGE 

.     82 

23- 

Invitation  to  the  Dance 

8+ 

24. 

A  Pastoral 

•      87 

25. 

The  Mulberry-Gatherer 

87 

26. 

The  Wooing 

.      89 

27. 

A  Descant  upon  Sleep  and  Love     . 

93 

28. 

Flora  and  Phyllis   (Part  I) 

.      96 

29. 

Flora  and  Phyllis   (Part  III) 

100 

3^' 

Flos  Florae 

-         106 

31- 

A  Bird's  Song  of  Love 

107 

32. 

To  Lydia 

109 

33- 

A  Poem  of  Privacy  . 

III 

34. 

Flora        .... 

.        112 

35- 

The  Lover's  Monologue 

114 

36. 

The  Invitation  to  Love  . 

.        116 

37- 

Phyllis            .... 

117 

38. 

Love  Longings     . 

.        119 

39- 

The  Lover's  Vow 

120 

40. 

Farewell  to  the  Faithless 

.        123 

41. 

Gretchen        .              ,              ,              . 

126 

42. 

Adieu  to  the  Valley 

.       127 

43- 

The  Lover's  Parting 

128 

44. 

In  Articulo  Mortis 

.        130 

45- 

A  Sequence  in  Praise  of  Wine 

134 

46. 

A  Carol  of  Wine 

•        135 

47. 

The  Students'  Wine-Bout    . 

137 

48. 

Time's  A-Flying 

.        138 

49- 

There's  no  Lust  like  to  Poetry 

139 

CONTENTS 


XI 


NO. 
50. 

51- 

52. 

53- 
54- 
SS- 
56. 

57. 
58. 

59- 
60. 


Wine  and  Venus  . 

The  Contest  of  Wine  and  Water 

Bacchic  Frenzy    . 

The  Lament  of  the  Roast  Swan 

The  Will  of  the  Dying  Ass 

The  Abbot  of  Cockaigne 

Death  Takes  All 

Autumn  Years 

Vanitas  Vanitatum 

On  Contempt  for  the  World 

Gaudeamus  Igitur 

Appendix 


PAGE 

I  40 

143 

.    149 

152 

•    153 

157 

.    158 

159 

.    160 

162 

.    164 

T72 

LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


The  Tavern's  Pleasures 

Spring 

The  Village  Dance 

Sleep  and  Love- 

Wine  and  Venus 

In  the  Sect  of  Decius 


Frontispiece 


62 

79 
92 

141 

156 


The  above  six  woodcuts  are  reproduced   from   the    "Navis 
Stultifera"  of  Sebastian  Brandt,  first  Latin  edition,  1497. 


First  Edition,  1%%^,      Second  Edition,  igoj.      Reprinted 
in  the  King's  Classics,  1 907. 


WINE,   WOMEN,  AND   SONG 


WHEN  we  try  to  picture  to  ourselves  the  in- 
tellectual and  moral  state  of  Europe  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  some  fixed  and  almost  stereotyped  ideas 
immediately  suggest  themselves.  We  think  of  the 
nations  immersed  in  a  gross  mental  lethargy ;  passively 
witnessing  the  gradual  extinction  of  arts  and  sciences 
which  Greece  and  Rome  had  splendidly  inaugurated  ; 
allowing  libraries  and  monuments  of  antique  civilisation 
to  crumble  into  dust ;  while  they  trembled  under  a  dull 
and  brooding  terror  of  coming  judgment,  shrank  from 
natural  enjoyment  as  from  deadly  sin,  or  yielded  them- 
selves with  brutal  eagerness  to  the  satisfaction  of  vulgar 
appetites.  Preoccupation  with  the  other  world  in  this 
long  period  weakens  man's  hold  upon  the  things  that 
make  his  life  desirable.  Philosophy  is  sunk  in  the 
slough  of  ignorant,  perversely  subtle  disputation  upon 
subjects  destitute  of  actuality.  Theological  fanaticism 
has  extinguished  liberal  studies  and  the  gropings  of  the 
reason  after  truth  in  positive  experience.  Society  lies 
prostrate  under  the  heel  of  tyrannous  orthodoxy.  We 
discern  men  in  masses,  aggregations,  classes,  guilds — 
everywhere  the  genus  and  the  species  of  humanity, 
rarely    and     by    luminous    exception    individuals   and 


B 


''2  WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

'  persons.  Universal  ideals  of  Church  and  Empire  clog 
and  confuse  the  nascent  nationalities.  Prolonged  habits 
of  extra-mundane  contemplation,  combined  with  the 
decay  of  real  knowledge,  volatilise  the  thoughts  and 
aspirations  of  the  best  and  wisest  into  dreamy  un- 
realities, giving  a  false  air  of  mysticism  to  love,  shroud- 
ing art  in  allegory,  reducing  the  interpretation  of  texts 
to  an  exercise  of  idle  ingenuity,  and  the  study  of 
Nature  (in  Bestiaries,  Lapidaries,  and  the  like)  to  an 

^  insane  system  of  grotesque  and  pious  quibbling.  The 
conception  of  man's  fall  and  of  the  incurable  badness 
of  this  world  bears  poisonous  fruit  of  cynicism  and 
asceticism,  that  twofold  bitter  almond  hidden  in  the 
harsh  monastic  shell.  The  devil  has  become  God 
upon  this  earth,  and  God's  eternal  jailer  in  the  next 

\  world.     Nature  is  regarded  with  suspicion  and  aver- 

'  sion;  the  flesh,  with  shame  and  loathing,  broken  by 
spasmodic  outbursts  of  lawless  self-indulgence.  For 
human  life  there  is  one  formula : — 

"Of  what  is't  fools  make  such  vain  keeping? 
Sin  their  conception,  their  birth  weeping, 
Their  Hfe  a  general  mist  of  error, 
Their  death  a  hideous  storm  of  terror." 

The  contempt  of  the  world  is  the  chief  theme  of 
r  edification.  A  charnel  filled  with  festering  corpses, 
snakes,  and  worms  points  the  preacher's  moral. 
Before  the  eyes  of  all,  in  terror-stricken  vision  or  in 
nightmares  of  uneasy  conscience,  leap  the  inextinguish- 
able flames  of  hell.  Salvation,  meanwhile,  is  being 
sought  through  amulets,  relics,  pilgrimages  to  holy 
places,  fetishes  of  divers  sorts  and    different  degrees 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG  3 

of  potency.  The  faculties  of  the  heart  and  head, 
defrauded  of  wholesome  sustenance,  have  recourse  to 
delirious  debauches  of  the  fancy,  dreams  of  magic, 
compacts  with  the  evil  one,  insanities  of  desire,  inepti- 
tudes of  discipline.  Sexual  passion,  ignoring  the  true 
place  ot  woman  in  society,  treats  her  on  the  one  hand 
like  a  servile  instrument,  on  the  other  exalts  her  to 
sainthood  or  execrates  her  as  the  chief  impediment  to 
holiness.  Common  sense,  sanity  of  judgment,  accept- 
ance of  things  as  they  are,  resolution  to  ameliorate  the 
evils  and  to  utilise  the  goods  of  life,  seem  everywhere 
deficient.  Men  are  obstinate  in  misconception  of  their 
proper  aims,  wasting  their  energies  upon  shadows  instead 
of  holding  fast  by  realities,  waiting  for  a  future  whereof 
they  know  nothing,  in  lieu  of  mastering  and  economis- 
ing the  present.  The  largest  and  most  serious  under- 
takings of  united  Europe  in  this  period — the  Crusades 
— are  based  upon  a  radical  mistake.  "  Why  seek  ye 
the  living  among  the  dead  ?  Behold,  He  is  not  here, 
but  risen  !  "  With  these  words  ringing  in  their  ears, 
the  nations  flock  to  Palestine  and  pour  their  blood 
forth  for  an  empty  sepulchre.  The  one  Emperor  who 
attains  the  object  of  Christendom  by  rational  means 
is  excommunicated  for  his  success.  Frederick  II. 
returns  from  the  Holy  Land  a  ruined  man  because  he 
made  a  compact  useful  to  his  Christian  subjects  with 
the  Chief  of  Islam. 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 


II 

Such  are  some  of  the  stereotyped  ideas  which  crowd 
our  mind  when  we  reflect  upon  the  Middle  Ages. 
They  are  certainly  one-sided.  Drawn  for  the  most 
part  from  the  study  of  monastic  literature,  exaggerated 
by  that  reaction  against  medievalism  which  the  Renais- 
sance initiated,  they  must  be  regarded  as  inadequate  to 
represent  the  whole  truth.  At  no  one  period  between 
the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  close  of  the 
thirteenth  century  was  the  mental  atmosphere  of  Europe 
so  unnaturally  clouded.  Yet  there  is  sufficient  substance 
in  them  to  justify  their  formulation.  The  earlier  Middle 
Ages  did,  in  fact,  extinguish  antique  civility.  The  later 
Middle  Ages  did  create,  to  use  a  phrase  of  Michelet, 
an  army  of  dunces  for  the  maintenance  of  orthodoxy. 
The  intellect  and  the  conscience  became  used  to 
moving  paralytically  among  visions,  dreams,  and  mystic 
terrors,  weighed  down  with  torpor,  abusing  virile 
faculties  for  the  suppression  of  truth  and  the  perpetu- 
ation of  revered  error. 

It  is,  therefore,  with  a  sense  of  surprise,  with  some- 
thing like  a  shock  to  preconceived  opinions,  that  we 
first  become  acquainted  with    the  medieval    literature 
which  it  is  my  object  in  the  present  treatise  to  make 
better  known  to  English  readers.     That  so  bold,  so 
;  fresh,  so  natural,  so  pagan  a  view   of  human  life  as  the 
i  Latin  songs  of  the  Wandering  Students  exhibit,  should 
I  have  found  clear  and  artistic  utterance  in  the  epoch  of 
!^he  Crusades,  is  indeed  enough  to  bid  us  pause  and  re- 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG  5 

consider  the  justice  of  our  stereotyped  ideas  about  that 
period.  This  literature  makes  it  manifest  that  the 
ineradicable  appetites  and  natural  instincts  of  men  and 
women  were  no  less  vigorous  in  fact,  though  less  articu- 
late and  self-assertive,  than  they  had  been  in  the  age  of 
Greece  and  Rome,  and  than  they  afterwards  displayed 
themselves  in  what  is  known  as  the  Renaissance. 

With  something  of  the  same  kind  we  have  long  been 
familiar  in  the  Troubadour  poetry  of  Provence.  But 
Provencal  literature  has  a  strong  chivalrous  tincture, 
and  every  one  is  aware  with  what  relentless  fury  the 
civilisation  which  produced  it  was  stamped  out  by  the 
Church.  JThe  literature  of  the  Wandering  Students, 
on  the  other  hand,  owes  nothing  to  chivalry,  and 
emanates  from  a  class  which  formed  a  subordinate  part 
of  the  ecclesiastical  militia^  It  is  almost  vulgar  in  its  i 
presentment  of  common  huinan  impulses ;  it  bears  the 
mark  of  the  proletariate,  though  adorned  with  flourishes 
betokening  the  neighbourhood  of  Church  and  Uni- 
versity. 


---f^ 


III 

Much  has  recently  been  written  upon  the  subject 
of  an  abortive  Renaissance  within  the  Middle  Ages.  ^/j 
The  centre  of  it  was  France,  and  its  period  of  brilliancy 
may  be  roughly  defined  as  the  middle  and  end  of  the 
twelfth  century.  Much,  again,  has  been  said  about 
the  religious  movement  in  England,  which  spread  to 
Eastern  Europe,  and  anticipated  the  Reformation  by 
two  centuries  before  the  date  of  Luther.     The  songs  ot 


6  WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

the  Wandering  Students,  composed  for  the  most  part  in 
the  twelfth  century,  illustrate  both  of  these  early  efforts 
after  self-emancipation.  Uttering  the  unrestrairied 
emotions  of  men  attached  by  a  slender  tie  to  the 
dominant  clerical  class  and  diffused  over  all  countries, 
they  bring  us  face  to  face  with  a  body  of  opinion  which 
finds  in  studied  chronicle  or  laboured  dissertation  of 
the  period  no  echo.  On  the  one  side,  they  express 
that  delight  in  life  and  physical  enjoyment  which  was 
a  main  characteristic  of  the  Renaissance  ;  on  the  other, 
they  proclaim  that  revolt  against  the  corruption  of 
Papal  Rome  which  was  the  motive-force  of  the 
Reformation. 

Our  knowledge  of  this  poetry  is  derived  from  two 
chief  sources.  One  is  a  MS.  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
which  was  long  preserved  in  the  monastery  of  Benedict- 
beuern  in  Upper  Bavaria,  and  is  now  at  Munich. 
Richly  illuminated  with  rare  and  curious  illustrations 
of  contemporary  manners,  it  seems  to  have  been 
compiled  for  the  use  of  some  ecclesiastical  prince. 
This  fine  codex  was  edited  in  1847  at  Stuttgart. 
The  title  of  the  publication  is  Carmina  Burana,  and 
under  that  designation  I  shall  refer  to  it.  The  other 
is  a  Harleian  MS.,  written  before  1264,  which  Mr. 
Thomas  Wright  collated  with  other  English  MSS., 
and  published  in  1841  under  the  name  of  Latin  Poems 
commonly  attributed  to  Walter  Mapes. 

These  two  sources  have  to  some  extent  a  common 
stock  of  poems,  which  proves  the  wide  diffusion  of 
the  songs  in  question  before  the  date  assignable  to  the 
earlier  of  the  two  MS.  authorities.     But  while  this  is 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG  7 

so,  it  must  be  observed  that  the  Carmina  Burana  are 
richer  in  compositions  which  form  a  prelude  to  the 
Renaissance ;  the  EngHsh  collections,  on  the  other 
hand,  contain  a  larger  number  of  serious  and  satirical 
pieces  anticipating  the   Reformation. 

Another  important  set  of  documents  for  the  study  of 
the  subject  are  the  three  large  works  of  Edelstand  du 
Meril  upon  popular  Latin  poetry;  while  the  stores  at 
our  disposal  have  been  otherwise  augmented  by  occa- 
sional publications  of  German  and  English  scholars, 
bringing  to  light  numerous  scattered  specimens  of  a 
like  description.  Of  late  it  has  been  the  fashion  in 
Germany  to  multiply  anthologies  of  medieval  student- 
songs,  intended  for  companion  volumes  to  the  Com- 
mershuch.  Among  these,  one  entitled  Gaudeamus 
(Teubner,  2d  edition,  1879)  deserves  honourable 
mention. 

It  is  my  purpose  to  give  a  short  account  of  what  is 
known  about  the  authors  of  these  verses,  to  analyse  the 
general  characteristics  of  their  art,  and  to  illustrate  the 
theme  by  copious  translations.  So  far  as  I  am  aware, 
the  songs  of  Wandering  Students  offer  almost  abso- 
lutely untrodden  ground  to  the  English  translator ; 
and  this  fact  may  be  pleaded  in  excuse  for  the  large 
number  which  I  have  laid  under  contribution. 

In  carrying  out  my  plan,  I  shall  confine  myself 
principally,  but  not  strictly,  to  the  Carmina  Burana. 
I  wish  to  keep  in  view  the  anticipation  of  the  Renais- 
sance rather  than  to  dwell  upon  those  elements  which 
indicate  an  early  desire  for  ecclesiastical  reform. 


c 


8  WINE,   WOMEN,   AND    SONG 


IV 

We  have  reason  to  conjecture  that  the  Romans,  even 
during  the  classical  period  of  their  literature,  used 
accentual  rhythms  for  popular  poetry,  while  quanti- 
tative metres  formed  upon  Greek  models  were  the 
artificial  modes  employed  by  cultivated  writers.  How- 
ever this  may  be,  there  is  no  doubt  that,  together 
with  the  decline  of  antique  civilisation,  accent  and 
rhythm  began  to  displace  quantity  and  metre  in  Latin 
versification.  Quantitative  measures,  like  the  Sapphic 
and  Hexameter,  were  composed  accentually.  The  ser- 
vices and  music  of  the  Church  introduced  new  systems 
of  prosody.  Rhymes,  both  single  and  double,  were 
added  to  the  verse  ;  and  the  extraordinary  flexibility 
of  medieval  Latin — that  sonorous  instrument  of  varied 
rhetoric  used  by  Augustine  in  the  prose  of  the  Con- 
fessionsy  and  gifted  with  poetic  inspiration  in  such 
hymns  as  the  Dies  Irae  or  the  Stabat  Mater — rendered 
this  new  vehicle  of  literary  utterance  adequate  to  all 
the  tasks  imposed  on  it  by  piety  and  metaphysic.  The 
language  of  the  Confessions  and  the  Dies  Irae  is  not, 
in  fact,  a  decadent  form  of  Cicero's  prose  or  Virgil's 
verse,  but  a  development  ot  the  Roman  speech  in 
accordance  with  the  new  conditions  introduced  by 
Christianity.  It  remained  comparatively  sterile  in  the 
department  of  prose  composition,  but  it  attained  to  high 
qualities  of  art  in  the  verse  and  rhythms  of  men  like 
Thomas  of  Celano,  Thomas  of  Aquino,  Adam  of  St. 
Victor,  Bernard  of  Morlais,  and  Bernard  of  Clairvaux. 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND    SONG  9 

At  the  same  time,  classical  Latin  literature  continued 
to  be  languidly  studied  in  the  cloisters  and  the  schools 
of  grammar.  The  metres  of  the  ancients  were  prac- 
tised with  uncouth  and  patient  assiduity,  strenuous 
efforts  being  made  to  keep  alive  an  art  which  was  no 
longer  rightly  understood.  Rhyme  invaded  the  hexa- 
meter, and  the  best  verses  of  the  medieval  period  in 
that  measure  were  leonine. 

The  hymns  of  the  Church  and  the  secular  songs 
composed  for  music  in  this  base  Latin  took  a  great 
variety  of  rhythmic  forms.  It  is  clear  that  vocal 
melody  controlled  their  movement ;  and  one  fixed 
element  in  all  these  compositions  was  rhyme — rhyme 
often  intricate  and  complex  beyond  hope  of  imitation 
in  our  language.  Elision  came  to  be  disregarded ; 
arid  even  the  accentual  values,  which  may  at  first 
have  formed  a  substitute  for  quantity,  yielded  to  musi- 
cal notation.  The  epithet  of  popular  belongs  to  these 
songs  in  a  very  real  sense,  since  they  were  intended 
for  the  people's  use,  and  sprang  from  popular  emotion. 
Poems  of  this  class  were  technically  known  as  moduli — 
a  name  which  points  significantly  to  the  importance  of 
music  in  their  structure.  Imitations  of  Ovid's  elegiacs 
or  of  Virgil's  hexameters  obtained  the  name  of  versus. 
Thus  Walter  of  Lille,  the  author  of  a  regular  epic 
poem  on  Alexander,  one  of  the  best  medieval  writers 
of  versuSf  celebrates  his  skill  in  the  other  department 
of  popular  poetry  thus — 

"Perstrepuit  moduHs  Gallia  tota  meis." 
(All  France  rang  with  my  songs.) 

We  might  compare  the  versus  of  the  Middle  Ages 


lo        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

with  the  stiff  sculptures  on  a  Romanesque  font,  life- 
lessly reminiscent  of  decadent  classical  art ;  while  the 
moduli,  in  their  freshness,  elasticity,  and  vigour  of 
invention,  resemble  the  floral  scrolls,  foliated  cusps, 
and  grotesque  basreliefs  of  Gothic  or  Lombard 
architecture. 


Even  in  the  half-light  of  what  used  to  be  called 
emphatically  the  Dark  Ages,  there  pierce  gleams 
which  may  be  reflections  from  the  past  evening  of 
paganism,  or  may  intimate  the  earliest  dawn  of 
modern  times.  One  of  these  is  a  song,  partly  popular, 
partly  scholastic,  addressed  to  a  beautiful  boy.^  It 
begins  thus — 

"O  admirabile  veneris  id6lum  " — 

and  continues  in  this  strain,  upon  the  same  rhythm, 
blending  reminiscences  of  classical  mythology  and 
medieval  metaphysic,  and  winding  up  with  a  reference 
to  the"  Horatian  Vitas  hinnuleo  me  similis  Chloe.  This 
poem  was  composed  in  the  seventh  century,  probably 
at  Verona,  for  mention  is  made  in  it  of  the  river 
Adige.  The  metre  can  perhaps  be  regarded  as  a 
barbarous  treatment  of  the  long  Asclepiad ;  but  each 
line  seems  to7work  out  into  two  bars,  divided  by  a 
marked  rest,  with  two  accents  to  each  bar,  and  shows 

1  Du  Meril,  Poesies  Populaires  Latiius  Anterieures  au  Deuuieme 
iiiecle,  p.  240.  h        '   ■ 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG         ii 

by  what  sort  of  transition  the  modern  French  Alexan- 
drine may  have  been  developed. 

The  oddly  archaic  phraseology  of  this  love-song 
rendered  it  unfit  for  translation  ;  but  I  have  tried  my 
hand  at  a  kind  of  hymn  in  praise  of  Rome,  which  is 
written  in  the  same  peculiar  rhythm  :  ^  — 

"O  Rome  illustrious,  of  the  world  emperessi 
Over  all  cities  thou  queen  in  thy  goodliness ! 
Red  with  the  roseate  blood  of  the  martyrs,  and 
White  with  the  lilies  of  virgins  at  God's  right  hand  I 
Welcome  we  sing  to  thee;  ever  we  bring  to  thee 
Blessings,  and  pay  to  thee  praise  for  eternity. 

Peter,  thou  praepotent  warder  of  Paradise, 

Hear  thou  with  mildness  the  prayer  of  thy  votaries  ; 

When  thou  art  seated  to  judge  the  twelve  tribes,  O  then 

Show  thyself  merciful  ;  be  thou  benign  to  men  ; 

And  when  we  call  to  thee  now  in  the  world's  distress, 

Take  thou  our  suffrages,  master,  with  gentleness. 

Paul,  to  our  litanies  lend  an  indulgent  ear, 

Who  the  philosophers  vanquished  with  zeal  severe  : 

Thou    that    art    steward    now    in    the   Lord's    heavenly 

house. 
Give  us  to  taste  of  the  meat   of  grace  bounteous  ; 
So  that  the  wisdom  which  filled  thee  and  nourished  thee 
May  be  our  sustenance  through  the  truths  taught  by  thee." 

A  curious  secular  piece  of  the  tenth  century  deserves 
more  than  passing  mention.  It  shows  how  wine, 
women,  and  song,  even  in  an  age  which  is  supposed  to 
have  trembled  for  the  coming  destruction  of  the  world, 
still  formed  the  attraction  of  some  natures.  What  is 
more,  there  is  a  certain  modern,  as  distinguished  from 

1  Du  Meril,  o/j.  cit.,  p.  239. 


12         WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

classical, .  tone  of  tenderness  in  the  sentiment.  It  is 
the  invitation  of  a  young  man  to  his  mistress,  bidding 
her  to  a  little  supper  in  his  rooms  :  ^  — 

*'  Come  therefore  now,  my  gentle  fere, 
Whom  as  my  heart  I  hold  full  dear ; 
Enter  my  little  room,  which  is 
Adorned  with  quaintest  rarities  : 
There  are  the  seats  with  cushions  spread, 
The  roof  with  curtains  overhead  ; 
The  house  with  flowers  of  sweetest  scent 
And  scattered  herbs  is  redolent : 
A  table  there  is  deftly  dight 
With  meats  and  drinks  of  rare  delight ; 
There  too  the  wine  flows,  sparkling,  free  ; 
And  all,  my  love,  to  pleasure  thee. 
There  sound  enchanting  symphonies ; 
The  clear  high  notes  of  flutes  arise ; 
A  singing  girl  and  artful  boy 
Are  chanting  for  thee  strains  of  joy  ; 
He  touches  with  his  quill  the  wire. 
She  tunes  her  note  unto  the  lyre : 
The  servants  carry  to  and  fro 
Dishes  and  cups  of  ruddy  glow ; 
But  these  delights,  I  will  confess, 
Than  pleasant  converse  charm  me  less  ; 
Nor  is  the  feast  so  sweet  to  me 
As  dear  familiarity. 
Then  come  now,  sister  of  my  heart. 
That  dearer  than  all  others  art. 
Unto  mine  eyes  thou  shining  sun. 
Soul  of  my  soul,  thou  only  one  ! 
I  dwelt  alone  in  the  wild  woods, 
And  loved  all  secret  solitudes ; 
Oft  would  I  fly  from  tumults  far. 
And  shunned  where  crowds  of  people  are. 


1  Du  M^ril,  Poesies  Populaires  Latines  Jit  Moijen  Age,  p.   196. 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG         13 

0  dearest,  do  not  longer  stay  ! 
Seek  we  to  live  and  love  to-day  I 

1  cannot  live  v^^ithout  thee,  sweet  I 
Time  bids  us  now  our  love  complete. 
Why  should  we  then  defer,  my  own, 
What  must  be  done  or  late  or  soon  ? 
Do  quickly  what  thou  canst  not  shun  I 

I  have  no  hesitation."  ~> 

From  Du  Meril's  collections  further  specimens  of 
thoroughly  secular  poetry  might  be  culled.  Such  is 
the  panegyric  of  the  nightingale,  which  contains  the 
following  impassioned  lines  :  ^ — 

"  Implet  silvas  atque  cuncta  modulis  arbustula, 
Gloriosa  valde  facta  veris  prae  laetitia ; 
Volitando  scandit  alta  arborum  cacumina, 
Ac  festiva  satis  gliscit  sibilare  carmina." 

Such  are  the  sapphics  on  the  spring,  which,  though 
they  date  from  the  seventh  century,  have  a  truly  modern 
sentiment  of  Nature.  Such,  too,  is  the  medieval 
legend  of  the  Snow-Child,  treated  comically  in  bur- 
lesque Latin  verse,  and  meant  to  be  sung  to  a  German 
tune  of  love — Modus  L'lehinc,  To  the  same  category 
may  be  referred  the  horrible,  but  singularly  striking, 
series  of  Latin  poems  edited  from  a  MS.  at  Berne, 
which  set  forth  the  miseries  of  monastic  life  with 
realistic  passion  bordering  upon  delirium,  under  titles 
like  the  following — Dissuasio  Concubitus  in  Uno  tantum 
Sexu,  or  jDe  Monachi  CruciatuJ^ 

1  Du  Meril,  Poesies  Pop.  Lat.  Ant.,  pp.   278,  24I,  275. 

'^  These  extraordinary  compositions  will  be  found  on  pp. 
174-182  of  a  closely-printed  book  entitled  Carmina  Med. 
Aei>.  Max.  Part.  Inedita.  Ed.  H.  Hagenus,  Bernae.  Ap. 
G.   Frobenium,     MDCccLxxvii.      The  editor,   so  far  as   I  can 


14        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND    SONG 


VI 

There  Is  little  need  to  dwell  upon  these  crepuscular 
stirrings  of  popular  Latin  poetry  in  the  earlier  Middle 
Ages.  To  indicate  their  existence  was  necessary  ;  for 
they  serve  to  link  by  a  dim  and  fragile  thread  of  evo- 
lution the  decadent  art  of  the  base  Empire  with  the 
renascence  of  paganism  attempted  in  the  twelfth  century, 
and  thus  to  connect  that  dawn  of  modern  feeling  with 
the  orient  splendours  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries  in  Italy. 
/  The  first  point  to  notice  is  the  dominance  of  music 
in  this  verse,  and  the  subjugation  of  the  classic  metres 
to  its  influence.  A  deeply  significant  transition  has 
been  effected  from  the  'versus  to  the  modulus  by  the 
substitution  of  accent  for  quantity,  and  by  the  value 
given  to  purely  melodic  cadences.  A  long  syllable  and 
a  short  syllable  have  almost  equal  weight  in  this  pro- 
sody, for  the  musical  tone  can  be  prolonged  or  shortened 
upon  either.  So  now  the  cantilena,  rather  than  the  metron, 
rules  the  flow  of  verse  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  antique 
forms  are  still  conventionally  used,  though  violated  in 
the  using.  In  other  words,  the  modern  metres  of  the 
modern  European  races — the  Italian  Hendecasyllable, 
the    French    Alexandrine,    the    English    Iambic    and 

discover,  gives  but  scant  indication  of  the  poet  who  lurks, 
with  so  much  style  and  so  terrible  emotions,  under  the  veil 
of  Cod.  Bern.,  702  s.  Any  student  who  desires  to  cut  into 
the  core  of  cloister  life  should  read  cvii.  pp.  178-182,  of  this 
little  book. 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG         15 

Trochaic  rhythms — have  been  indicated  ;  and  a  moment 
has  been  prepared  when  these  measures  shall  tune  them- 
selves by  means  of  emphasis  and  accent  to  song,  before 
they  take  their  place  as  literary  schemes  appealing  to 
the  ear  in  rhetoric.  This  phase,  whereby  the  metres  of 
antiquity  pass  into  the  rhythms  of  the  modern  races, 
implies  the  use  of  medieval  Latin,  still  not  unmindful 
of  classic  art,  but  governed  now  by  music  often  of 
'^Teutonic  origin,  and  further  modified  by  affinities  of 
prosody  imported  from  Teutonic  sources. 

The  next  point  to  note  is  that,  in  this  process  of 
transition,  popular  ecclesiastical  poetry  takes  pre- 
cedence of  secular.  The  great  rhyming  structures  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  which  exercised  so  wide  an  influence 
over  early  European  literature,  were  invented  for  the 
service  of  the  Church — voluminous  systems  of  recurrent 
double  rhymes,  intricate  rhythms  moulded  upon  tunes 
for  chanting,  solid  melodic  fabrics,  which,  having  once 
been  formed,  were  used  for  lighter  efforts  of  the  fancy, 
or  lent  their  ponderous  effects  to  parody.  Thus,  in  the 
first  half  of  the  centuries  which  intervene  between  the 
extinction  of  the  genuine  Roman  Empire  and  the  year 
1300,  ecclesiastical  poetry  took  the  lead  in  creating 
and  popularising  new  established  types  of  verse,  and  in 
rendering  the  spoken  Latin  pliable  for  various  purposes 
of  art. 

A  third  point  worthy  of  attention  is,  that  a  certain 
breath  of  paganism,  wafting  perfumes  from  the  old 
mythology,  whispering  of  gods  in  exile,  encouraging 
men  to  accept  their  life  on  earth  with  genial  enjoyment, 
was  never  wholly  absent  during  the  darkest  periods  of 


i6         WINE,   WOMEN,   AND    SONG 

the  Middle  Ages.  This  inspiration  uttered  itself  in 
Latin  ;  for  we  have  little  reason  to  believe  that  the 
modern  languages  had  yet  attained  plasticity  enough  for 
the  expression  of  that  specific  note  which  belongs  to 
the  Renaissance — the  note  of  humanity  conscious  of 
its  Graeco- Roman  pagan  past.  This  Latin,  mean- 
while, which  it  employed  was  fabricated  by  the  Church 
and  used  by  men  of  learning. 


VII 

The  songs  of  the  Wandering  Students  were  in  a  strict 
sense  moduli  as  distinguished  from  versus  ;  popular  and 
not  scholastic.  They  were,  however,  composed  by 
men  of  culture,  imbued  with  classical  learning  of  some 
sort,  and  prepared  by  scholarship  for  the  deftest  and 
most  delicate  manipulation  of  the  Latin  language. 

Who  were  these  Wandering  Students,  so  often  men- 
tioned, and  of  whom  nothing  has  been  as  yet  related  ? 
As  their  name  implies,  they  were  men,  and  for  the  most 
part  young  men,  travelling  from  university  to  university 
in  search  of  knowledge.  Far  from  their  homes,  with- 
out responsibilities,  light  of  purse  and  hght  of  heart, 
careless  and  pleasure-seeking,  they  ran  a  free,  disreput- 
able course,  frequenting  taverns  at  least  as  much  as 
lecture-rooms,  more  capable  of  pronouncing  judg- 
ment upon  wine  or  women  than  upon  a  problem  of 
divinity  or  logic.  The  conditions  of  medieval  learning 
made  it  necessary  to  study  different  sciences  in  different 
parts  of  Europe  ;  and  a  fixed  habit  of  unrest,  which 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG         17 

"seems  to  have  pervaded  society  after  the  period  of  the 
Crusades,  encouraged  vagabondage  in  all  classes.  The 
extent  to  which  travelling  was  carried  in  the  Middle 
Ages  for  purposes  of  pilgrimage  and  commerce,  out  of 
pure  curiosity  or  love  of  knowledge,  for  the  bettering 
of  trade  in  handicrafts  or  for  self-improvement  in  the 
sciences,  has  only  of  late  years  been  estimated  at  a  just 
calculation.  "  The  scholars,"  wrote  a  monk  of  Froid- 
mont  in  the  twelfth  century,  "  are  wont  to  roam  around 
the  world  and  visit  all  its  cities,  till  much  learning 
makes  them  mad ;  for  in  Paris  they  seek  liberal  arts, 
in  Orleans  authors,  at  Salerno  gallipots,  at  Toledo 
demons,  and  in  no  place  decent  manners." 

These  pilgrims  to  the  shrines  of  knowledge  formed  a 
class  apart.  They  were  distinguished  from  the  secular 
and  religious  clergy,  inasmuch  as  they  had  taken  no 
orders,  or  only  minor  orders,  held  no  benefice  or  cure, 
and  had  entered  into  no  conventual  community.  They 
were  still  more  sharply  distinguished  from  the  laity, 
whom  they  scorned  as  brutes,  and  with  whom  they 
seem  to  have  lived  on  terms  of  mutual  hostility.  One 
of  these  vagabond  gownsmen  would  scarcely  conde- 
scend to  drink  with  a  townsman  :  ^ — 

"  In  aeterno  igni 
Cruciantur  rustici,  qui  non  sunt  tarn  digni 
Quod  bibisse  noverint  bonum  vinum  vini." 

"  Aestimetur  laicus  ut  brutus, 
Nam  ad  artem  surdus  est  et  mutus." 

1  See  the  drinking  song  printed  in  JValter  Mapes,  p.  xlv., 
and  Carm.  Bur,^  pp.  198,  179. 

C 


i8         WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

"  Litteratos  convocat  decus  virginale, 
Laicorum  execrat  pectus  bestiale," 

In  a  parody  of  the  Mass,  which  is  called  Offic'ium 
Lusorum,  and  in  which  the  prayers  are  offered  to 
Bacchus,  we  find  this  devout  collect :  ^ — "  Omnipotens 
sempiterne  deus,  qui  inter  rusticos  et  clericos  magnam 
discordiam  seminasti,  praesta  quaesumus  de  laboribus 
eorum  vivere,  de  mulieribus  ipsorum  vero  et  de  morte 
deciorum  semper  gaudere.'' 

The  English  version  of  this  ribald  prayer  is  even 
more  explicit.  It  runs  thus  : — "  Deus  qui  multitudinem 
rusticorum  ad  servitium  clericorum  venire  fecisti  et 
militum  et  inter  nos  et  ipsos  discordiam  seminasti." 

It  is  open  to  doubt  whether  the  mllites  or  soldiers 
were  included  with  the  rustics  in  that  laity,  for 
which  the  students  felt  so  bitter  a  contempt.  But 
the  tenor  of  some  poems  on  love,  especially  the 
Dispute  of  Phyllis  and  Flora,  shows  that  the  student 
claimed  a  certain  superiority  over  the  soldier.  This 
antagonism  between  clerk  and  rustic  was  heartily 
reciprocated.  In  a  song  on  taverns  the  student  is 
warned  that  he  may  meet  with  rough  treatment  from 
the  clodhopper  :  ^ — 

"  O  clerici  dilecti, 
Discite  vitare 
Tabernam  horribilem, 
Qui  cupitis  regnare ; 

1  Carm.  Bur.,  p,  249,  note.  There  is  a  variation  in  the 
parody  printed  by  Wright,  Rel.  Antiq.,  ii. 

2  See  A.  P.  von  Barnstein's  little  volume,  Ubi  sunt  qui  ante 
nos,  p.  46. 


WINE,    WOMEN,    AND    SONG         19 

Nee  audeant  vos  rustic! 
Plagis  verberare  1 

Rusticus  dum  se 

Sentit  ebriatum, 
Clericum  non  reputat 

Militem  armatum. 
Vere  plane  consulo 

Ut  abstineatis, 
Nec  unquam  cum  rusticis  ^ 

Tabernam  ineatis." 

The  affinities  of  the  Wandering  Students  were  rather 
with  the  Church  than  with  laymen  of  any  degree. 
They  piqued  themselves  upon  their  title  of  Clerici,  and 
added  the  epithet  of  Vagi.  We  shall  see  in  the  sequel 
that  they  stood  in  a  peculiar  relation  of  dependence 
upon  ecclesiastical  society. 

According  to  tendencies  prevalent  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
they  became  a  sort  of  guild,  and  proclaimed  them- 
selves with  pride  an  Order.  Nothing  is  more  clearly 
marked  in  their  poetry  than  the  esprit  de  corps ^  which 
animates  them  with  a  cordial  sense  of  brotherhood. ^ 
The  same  tendencies  which  prompted  their  association 
required  that  they  should  have  a  patron  saint.  But 
as  the  confraternity  was  anything  but  religious,  this 
saint,  or  rather  this  eponymous  hero,  had  to  be  a 
Rabelaisian  character.  He  was  called  Golias,  and 
his  flock  received  the  generic  name  of  Goliardi. 
Golias  was  father  and  master ;  the  Goliardi  were  his 
family,  his  sons,  and  pupils.  Fam'dia  Goliae,  Magistcr 
Golias,  Pueri  Goliae,  Discipulus  Goliae,  are  phrases  to 
be  culled  from  the  rubrics  of  their  literature. 

1   See  especially  the  songs  Ordo  Noster  and  Nos  Vagabunduli^ 
translated  below  in  Section  xiii. 


20         WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Much  has  been  conjectured  regarding  these  names 
and  titles.  Was  Golias  a  real  person  ?  Did  he  give 
his  own  name  to  the  Goliardi ;  or  was  he  invented 
after  the  Goliardi  had  already  acquired  their  designa- 
tion ?  In  either  case,  ought  we  to  connect  both  words 
with  the  Latin  gula,  and  so  regard  the  Goliardi  as 
notable  gluttons  ;  or  with  the  Proven9al  goUar,  gualiar, 
gual'iardor,  which  carry  a  significance  of  deceit  ?  Had 
Golias  anything  to  do  with  Goliath  of  the  Bible,  the 
great  Philistine,  who  in  the  present  day  would  more 
properly  be  chosen  as  the  hero  of  those  classes  which 
the  students  held  in  horror  ? 

It  is  not  easy  to  answer  these  questions.  All  we 
know  for  certain  is,  that  the  term  Goliardus  was  in 
common  medieval  use,  and  was  employed  as  a  synonym 
for  Wandering  Scholar  in  ecclesiastical  documents. 
Vagi  scholares  aut  Goliardi — -joculatores,  goliardi  sen 
hufones — goliardia  vel  histrionatus — vagi  scholares  qui 
goliardi  vel  histriones  alio  nomine  appellantur — clerici 
ribaudif  maxime  qui  dicuntur  de  familia  Goliae  :  so  run 
the  acts  of  several  Church  Councils. ^  The  word 
passed  into  modern  languages.  The  Grandes  ChrO" 
niques  de  S,  Denis  speak  ofjugleor,  enchanteor,  goliardoisy 
et  autres  manieres  de  menestrieux.  Chaucer,  in  his 
description  of  the  Miller,  calls  this  merry  narrator  of 
fabliaux  a  j angler  and  a  goliardeis.  In  Piers  Plough- 
man the  goliardeis  is  further  explained  to  be  a  glutton 
of  words,  and  talks  in  Latin  rhyme. ^ 

Giraldus    Cambrensis,    during    whose    lifetime    the 

1  See  Wright's  introduction  to  Walter  Mapes. 
'^  Ibid. 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG         21 

name  Golias  first  came  into  vogue,  thought  that  this 
father  of  the  Goliardic  family  was  a  real  person. ^  He 
writes  of  him  thus  : — **  A  certain  parasite  called  Golias, 
who  in  our  time  obtained  wide  notoriety  for  his  gluttony 
and  lechery,  and  by  addiction  to  gulosity  and  debauchery 
deserved  his  surname,  being  of  excellent  culture  but  of 
bad  manners,  and  of  no  moral  discipline,  uttered  often- 
times and  in  many  forms,  both  of  rhythm  and  metre, 
infamous  libels  against  the  Pope  and  Curia  of  Rome, 
with  no  less  impudence  than  imprudence."  This  is 
perhaps  the  most  outspoken  utterance  with  regard  to 
the  eponymous  hero  of  the  Goliardic  class  which  we 
possess,  and  it  deserves  a  close  inspection. 

In  the  first  place,  Giraldus  attributes  the  satiric  poems 
which  passed  under  the  name  of  Golias  to  a  single 
author  famous  in  his  days,  and  says  of  this  poet  that  he 
used  both  modern  rhythms  and  classical  metres.  The 
description  would  apply  to  Gualtherus  de  Insula,  Walter 
of  Lille,  or,  as  he  is  also  called,  Walter  of  Chatillon  ; 
for  some  of  this  Walter's  satires  are  composed  in  a 
curious  mixture  of  the  rhyming  measures  of  the 
medieval  hymns  with  classical  hexameters.  ^  Yet  had 
Giraldus  been  pointing  at  Walter  of  Lille,  a  notable 
personage  in  his  times,  there  is  no  good  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  he  would  have  suppressed  his  real  name,  or 
have  taken  for  granted  that  Golias  was  a  bona  fide  sur- 
name.    On  the  theory  that  he  knew  Golias  to  be  a 

1  See  Wright's  introduction  to  Walter  Mapes. 

2  See  Miildner,  Die  zehn  Gedichte  des  Walther  von  Lille^ 
1859.  Walter  Mapes  (ed.  Wright)  is  credited  with  five  of 
these  satires,  including  two  which  close  each  stanza  with  a 
hexameter  from  Juvenal,  Virgil,  Ovid,  Lucan,  Horace. 


22        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

mere  nickname,  and  was  aware  that  Walter  of  Lille 
was  the  actual  satirist,  we  should  have  to  explain  his 
paragraph  by  the  hypothesis  that  he  chose  to  sneer  at 
him  under  his  nom  de  guerre  instead  of  stigmatising  him 
openly  in  person. 

His  remarks,  at  any  rate,  go  far  toward  disposing  of 
the  old  belief  that  the  Goliardic  satires  were  the  work 
of  Thomas  Mapes.  Giraldus  was  an  intimate  friend 
of  that  worthy,  who  deserves  well  of  all  lovers  of 
medieval  romance  as  a  principal  contributor  to  the 
Arthurian  cycle.  It  is  hardly  possible  that  Giraldus 
should  have  gibbeted  such  a  man  under  the  sobriquet 
of  Golias. 

But  what,  it  may  be  asked,  if  Walter  of  Lille,  with- 
out the  cognisance  of  our  English  annalist,  had  in 
France  obtained  the  chief  fame  of  these  poems  ?  what 
if  they  afterwards  were  attributed  in  England  to 
another  Walter,  his  contemporary,  himself  a  satirist  of 
the  monastic  orders  ?  The  fact  that  Walter  of  Lille 
was  known  in  Latin  as  Gualtherus  de  Insula,  or 
Walter  of  the  Island,  may  have  confirmed  the  mis- 
apprehension thus  suggested.  It  should  be  added  that 
the  ascription  of  the  Goliardic  satires  to  Walter  Mapes 
or  Map  first  occurs  in  MSS.  of  the  fourteenth  century. 


VIII 

I  do  not  think  there  is  much  probability  of  arriving 
at  certainty  with  regard  to  the  problems  indicated  in 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG         23 

the  foregoing  section.  We  must  be  content  to  accept 
the  names  Golias  and  Goliardi  as  we  find  them,  and 
to  treat  of  this  literature  as  the  product  of  a  class,  from 
the  midst  of  which,  as  it  is  clear  to  any  critic,  more 
than  one  poet  rose  to  eminence. 

One  thing  appears  manifest  from  the  references  to 
the  Goliardi  which  I  have  already  quoted.  That  is, 
that  the  Wandering  Students  ranked  in  common  esti- 
mation with  jongleurs,  buffoons,  and  minstrels.  Both 
classes  held  a  similar  place  in  medieval  society.  Both 
were  parasites  devoted  to  the  entertainment  of  their 
superiors  in  rank.  Both  were  unattached,  except  by 
occasional  engagements,  to  any  fixed  abode.  But 
while  the  minstrels  found  their  temporary  homes  in  the 
castles  of  the  nobility,  we  have  reason  to  believe  that 
the  Goliardi  haunted  abbeys  and  amused  the  leisure  of 
ecclesiastical  lords. 

The  personality  of  the  writer  disappears  in  nearly  all 
the  Carmina  Vagorum.    Instead  of  a  poet  with  a  name, 
we  find  a  type  ;  and  the  verse  is  put  into  the  mouth  of 
Golias  himself,  or  the  Archipoeta,  or  the  Primate  of 
the  order.     This  merging  of  the  individual  in  the  class 
of  which  he  forms  a  part  is  eminently  characteristic  of 
popular  literature,  and  separates  the   Goliardic  songs 
from   those    of    the    Provencal    Troubadours.     The 
emotions  to  which  popular  poetry  gives  expression  are 
generic  rather  than  personal.     They  are  such  that  all 
the  world,  granted  common  sympathies  and  common 
proclivities,  can   feel    them    and    adopt    the    mode   of 
utterance  invented  for  them  by  the  singer.      If  there 
be  any  bar  to  their  universal  acceptance,  it  is  only  such 


24         WINE,   WOMEN,   AND    SONG 

as  may  belong  to  the  peculiar  conditions  of  the  social 
class  from  which  they  have  emanated.  The  Rispetti 
of  Tuscany  imply  a  certain  form  of  peasant  life.  The 
Carmina  Vagorum  are  coloured  to  some  extent  by  the 
prejudices  and  proclivities  of  vagabond  existence. 

Trenchantly  true  as  the  inspiration  of  a  popular 
lyric  may  be,  inevitable  as  may  be  the  justice  of  its 
sentiment,  unerring  as  may  be  its  touch  upon  reality, 
still  it  lacks  the  note  which  marks  it  out  for  one  man's 
utterance  among  a  thousand.  Composing  it,  the  one 
has  made  himself  the  mouthpiece  of  the  thousand. 
What  the  Volhsl'ied  gains  in  universality  it  loses  in 
individuality  of  character.  Its  applicability  to  human 
nature  at  large  is  obtained  at  the  sacrifice  of  that 
interest  which  belongs  to  special  circumstances.  It 
suits  every  one  who  grieves  or  loves  or  triumphs.  It 
does  not  indicate  the  love,  the  grief,  the  triumph  of 
this  man  and  no  other.  It  possesses  the  pathos  and 
the  beauty  ot  countless  human  lives  prolonged  through 
inarticulate  generations,  finding  utterance  at  last  in  it. 
It  is  deficient  in  that  particular  intonation  which  makes 
a  Shelley's  voice  differ  from  a  Leopardl's,  Petrarch's 
sonnets  for  Laura  differ  from  Sidney's  sonnets  for 
Stella.  It  has  always  less  of  perceptible  artistic  effect, 
more  enduring  human  quality.  Some  few  of  Its  lines 
are  so  well  found,  so  rightly  said,  that  they  possess  the 
certainty  of  natural  things — a  quality  rare  in  the  works 
of  all  but  the  greatest  known  poets.  But  these  phrases 
with  the  accent  of  truest  truth  are  often  embedded  in 
mere  generalities  and  repetitions. 

These    characteristics    of    popular    poetry    help    to 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND    SONG         25 

explain  the  frequent  recurrence  of  the  same  ideas,  the 
same  expressions,  the  same  stanzas  even,  in  the  lyrics 
of  the  Goliardi.  A  Volksliedy  once  created,  becomes 
common  property.  It  flies  abroad  like  thistledown  ; 
settles  and  sows  its  seed  ;  is  maimed  and  mutilated  ; 
is  improved  or  altered  for  the  worse ;  is  curtailed, 
expanded,  adapted  to  divers  purposes  at  different  times 
and  in  very  different  relations. 

We  may  dismiss  the  problem  of  authorship  partly  as 
insoluble,  partly  as  of  slight  importance  for  a  literature 
which  is  manifestly  popular.  With  even  greater 
brevity  may  the  problem  of  nationality  be  disposed  of. 
Some  critics  have  claimed  an  Italian,  some  an  English, 
some  a  French,  and  some  a  German  origin  for  the 
Carmina  Vagorum.  The  truth  is  that,  just  as  the 
Cleric'i  Vagi  were  themselves  of  all  nations,  so  were 
their  songs;  and  the  use  of  a  Latin  common  to  all 
Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages  renders  it  difficult  even  to 
conjecture  the  soil  from  which  any  particular  lyric  may 
have  sprung.  As  is  natural,  a  German  codex  contains 
more  songs  of  Teutonic  origin  ;  an  English  displays 
greater  abundance  of  English  compositions.  I  have 
already  observed  that  our  two  chief  sources  of  Goliardic 
literature  have  many  elements  in  common ;  but  the 
treasures  of  the  Benedictbeuern  MS.  differ  in  com- 
plexion from  those  of  the  Harleian  in  important  minor 
details  ;  and  it  is  probable  that  if  French  and  Italian 
stores  were  properly  ransacked — which  has  not  yet 
been  done — we  should  note  in  them  similar  characteristic 
divergences. 

The  Carmina  Biirana,  by  their  frequent  references  to 


26        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

linden-trees  and  nightingales,  and  their  numerous  Ger- 
man refrains,  indicate  a  German  home  for  the  poems  on 
spring  and  love,  in  which  they  are  specially  rich.^ 
The  collections  of  our  own  land  have  an  English  turn 
of  political  thought ;  the  names  Anglia  and  Anglus  not 
unfrequently  occur  ;  and  the  use  of  the  word  "  Schel- 
linck  "  in  one  of  the  Carmlna  Burana  may  point,  per- 
haps, to  an  English  origin.  France  claims  her  own, 
not  only  in  the  acknowledged  pieces  of  Walter  de 
Lille,  but  also  in  a  few  which  exhibit  old  French 
refrains.  To  Italian  conditions,  if  not  to  Italian  poets, 
we  may  refer  those  that  introduce  spreading  pines  or 
olive-trees  into  their  pictures,  and  one  which  yields  the 
refrain  Bela  rriia.  The  most  important  lyric  of  the 
series,  Golias*  Confession^  was  undoubtedly  written  at 
Pavia,  but  whether  by  an  Italian  or  not  we  do  not 
know.  The  probability  is  rather,  perhaps,  in  favour  of 
Teutonic  authorship,  since  this  Confession  is  addressed 
to  a  German  prelate.  Here  it  may  be  noticed  that 
the  proper  names  of  places  and  people  are  frequently 
altered  to  suit  different  countries ;  while  in  some  cases 
they  are  indicated  by  an  N,  sufficiently  suggestive  of 
their  generality.  Thus  the  Confession  of  Golias  in  the 
^Carmina  Burana  mentions  Electe  Colon'iae ;  in  an  English 
version,  introduces  Praesul  Coventriae.  The  prayer 
for  alms,  which  I  have  translated  in  Section  xiii.,  is 
addressed   to  Decus  N — ,  thou    honour  of  Norwich 

^  The  more  I  study  the  songs  of  love  and  wine  in  this 
codex,  the  more  convinced  am  I  that  they  have  their  origin 
for  the  most  part  in  South-Western  Germany,  Bavaria,  the 
Bodensee,  and  Elsass. 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND    SONG         27 

town,  or  Wittenberg,  or  wherever  the  wandering 
scholar  may  have  chanced  to  be.  ^ 

With  regard  to  the  form  and  diction  of  the  Carm'ina 
Vagorum^  it  is  enough  to  say  two  things  at  the  present 
time.  First,  a  large  portion  of  these  pieces,  including 
a  majority  of  the  satires  and  longer  descriptive  poems, 
are  composed  in  measures  borrowed  from  hymnology, 
follow  the  diction  of  the  Church,  and  imitate  the 
double-rhyming  rhythms  of  her  sequences.  It  is  not 
unnatural,  this  being  the  case,  that  parodies  of  hymns 
should  be  comparatively  common.  Of  these  I  shall 
produce  some  specimens  in  the  course  of  this  study. 
Secondly,  those  which  do  not  exhibit  popular  hymn 
measures  are  clearly  written  for  melodies,  some  of 
them  very  complicated  in  structure,  suggesting  part- 
songs  and  madrigals,  with  curious  interlacing  of  long 
and  short  lines,  double  and  single  rhymes,  recurrent 
ritournelles,  and  so  forth. 

The  ingenuity  with  which  these  poets  adapted  their 
language  to  the.  exigencies  of  the  tune,  taxing  the 
fertility  of  Latin  rhymes,  and  setting  off  the  long 
sonorous  words  to  great  advantage,  deserves  admiring 
comment.  At  their  best,  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
reproduce  in  English  the  peculiar  effects  of  their 
melodic  artifices.  But  there  is  another  side  to  the 
matter.  At  their  worst,  these  Latin  lyrics,  moulded 
on  a  tune,  degenerate  into  disjointed  verbiage,  sound 
and  adaptation  to  song  prevailing  over  sense  and  satis- 
faction to  the  mind.  It  must,  however,  be  remembered 
that  such  lyrics,  sometimes  now  almost  unintelligible, 
have  come  down  to   us  with   a   very  mutilated  text 


^ 


v^ 


28         WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

after  suffering  the  degradations  through  frequent  oral 
transmission  to  which  popular  poetry  is  peculiarly 
liable. 


\ 


IX 

A ,  /  [  It  is  easier  to  say  what  the  Goliardi  wrote  about 
than  who  the  writers  were,  and  what  they  felt  and 
thought  than  by  what  names  they  were  baptised.  The 
mass  of  their  Hterature,  as  it  is  at  present  known  to  us, 
divides  into  two  broad  classes.     The  one  division  in- 

1  eludes  poems  on  the  themes  of  vagabond  existence,  the 

/  truant  life  of  these  capricious  students ;  on  springtime 

and  its  rural  pleasure ;  on  love  in  many  phases  and  for 

divers  kinds  of  women ;   lastly,  on  wine  and  on  the 

dice-box.     The  other   division  is  devoted  to  graver 

'V  topics ;  to  satires  on  society,  touching  especially  the 
Roman  Court,  and  criticising  eminent  ecclesiastics  in 
all  countries ;  to  moral  dissertations,  and  to  discourses 
on  the  brevity  of  life.  ! 

Of  the  two  divisions,  the  former  yields  by  far  the 
livelier  image  of  the  men  we  have  to  deal  with.  It 
will  therefore  form  the  staple  of  my  argument.  The 
latter  blends  at  so  many  points  with  medieval  literature 
of  the  monastic  kind,  that  it  is  chiefly  distinguished  by 
boldness  of  censure  and  sincerity  of  invective.  In  these 
qualities  the  serious  poems  of  the  Goliardi,  emanating 
from  a  class  of  men  who  moved  behind  the  scenes  and 
yet  were  free  to  speak  their  thoughts,  are  unique. 
Written  with  the  satirist's  eye  upon  the  object  of  his 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG         29 

sarcasm,  tinged  with  the  license  of  his  vagabondage, 
throbbing  with  the  passionate  and  nonchalant  afflatus 
of  the  wine-cup,  they  wing  their  flight  like  poisoned 
arrows  or  plumed  serpents  with  unerring  straightness  at 
abuses  in  high  places. 

(/  The  wide  space  occupied  by  Nature  in  the  secular 
poems  of  the  Goliardi  is  remarkable.  As  a  background 
to  their  love-songs  we  always  find  the  woods  and  fields 
of  May,  abundant  flowers  and  gushing  rivulets,  lime- 
trees  and  pines  and  olive-trees,  through  which  soft 
winds  are  blowing.  There  are  rose-bowers  and  nightin- 
gales ;  fauns,  nymphs,  and  satyrs  dancing  on  the  sward. 
Choirs  of  mortal  maidens  emerge  in  the  midst  of  this 
Claude-landscape.  The  scene,  meanwhile,  has  been 
painted  from  experience,  and  felt  with  the  enthusiasm 
of  aff'ection.  It  breathes  of  healthy  open  air,  of  life 
upon  the  road,  of  casual  joys  and  wayside  pleasure, 
snatched  with  careless  heart  by  men  whose  tastes  are 
natural.  There  is  very  little  of  the  alcove  or  the 
closet  in  this  verse ;  and  the  touch  upon  the  world  is 
so  infantine,  so  tender,  that  we  are  indulgent  to  the 
generalities  with  which  the  poets  deal.    / 

What  has  been  said  about  popular  poetry  applies 
also  to  popular  painting.  In  the  landscapes  of  Goliardic 
literature  there  is  nothing  specific  to  a  single  locality — 
no  name  like  Vaucluse,  no  pregnant  touch  that  indicates 
one  scene  selected  from  a  thousand.  The  landscape  is 
always  a  background,  more  northern  or  more  southern 
as  the  case  may  be,  but  penetrated  with  the  feeling  of 
the  man  who  has  been  happy  or  has  suffered  there. 
This    feeling,    broadly,    sensuously    diffused,  as    in    a 


v/' 


30        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

masterpiece   of    Titian,    prepares   us    for    the   human 
element  to  be  exhibited. 

The  foreground  of  these  pictures  is  occupied  by  a 
pair  of  lovers  meeting  after  the  long  winter's  separation, 
a  dance  upon  the  village  green,  a  young  man  gazing 
on  the  mistress  he  adores,  a  disconsolate  exile  from  his 
home,  the  courtship  of  a  student  and  a  rustic  beauty, 
or  perhaps  the  grieved  and  melancholy  figure  of  one 
whose  sweetheart  has  proved  faithless.  Such  actors 
in  the  comedy  of  life  are  defined  with  fervent  intensity 
of  touch  against  the  leafy  vistas  of  the  scene.  The 
lyrical  cry  emerges  clear  and  sharp  in  all  that  concerns 
their  humanity. 

The  quality  of  love  expressed  is  far  from  being 
either  platonic  or  chivalrous.  It  is  love  of  the  sensuous, 
impulsive,  appetitive  kind,  to  which  we  give  the  name 
of  Pagan.  The  finest  outbursts  of  passion  are  emana- 
tions from  a  potent  sexual  desire.  Meanwhile,  nothing 
indicates  the  character  or  moral  quality  of  either  man 
or  woman.  The  student  and  the  girl  are  always  vis- 
a-vis, fixed  characters  in  this  lyrical  love-drama.  He 
calls  her  Phyllis,  Flora,  Lydia,  Glycerion,  Caecilia. 
He  remains  unnamed,  his  physical  emotion  sufficing  for 
personal  description.  The  divinity  presiding  over  them 
is  Venus.  Jove  and  Danae,  Cupid  and  the  Graces, 
Paris  and  Helen,  follow  in  her  train.  All  the  current 
classical  mythology  is  laid  under  cheap  contribution. 
Yet  the  central  emotion,  the  young  man's  heart's 
desire,  is  so  vividly  portrayed,  that  we  seem  to  be 
overhearing  the  triumphant  ebullition  or  the  melancholy 
love-lament  of  a  real  soul. 


WINE,    WOMEN,   AND    SONG         31 


The  sentiment  of  love  is  so  important  in  the  songs 
of  the  Wandering  Students,  that  it  may  not  be  super- 
fluous at  this  point  to  cull  a  few  emphatic  phrases  which 
illustrate  the  core  of  their  emotion,  and  to  present  these 
in  the  original  Latin. 

I  may  first  observe  to  what  a  large  extent  the  ideas 
of  spring  and  of  female  society  were  connected  at  that 
epoch.  Winter  was  a  dreary  period,  during  which  a 
man  bore  his  fate  and  suffered.  He  emerged  from  it 
into  sunshine,  brightened  by  the  intercourse  with 
women,  which  was  then  made  possible.  This  is  how 
the  winter  is  described  :  ^  — 

"  In  omni  loco  congruo 
Sermonis  oblectatio 
Cum  sexu  femineo 
Evanuit  omni  modo." 

Of  the  true  love-songs,  only  one  refers  expressly  to 
the  winter  season.  That,  however,  is  the  lyric  upon 
Flora,  which  contains  a  detailed  study  of  plastic  form 
in  the  bold  spirit  of  the  Goliardic  style.^ 

The  particularity  with  which  the  personal  charms  of 
women  are  described  deserves  attention.  The  portrait 
of  Flora,  to  which  I  have  just  alluded,  might  be  cited 
as  one  of  the  best  specimens.  But  the  slightest  shades 
are  discriminated,  as  in  this  touch  :^  — 

^    Carm.  Bur.,  p.   174' 

2  Ibid.,  p.  149,  translated  below  in  Section  xvii. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  130. 


32         WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

««Labellulis 

Castigate  tumentibus." 

One  girl  has  long  tawny  tresses  :   Caesaries  subruhea. 

Another  is  praised  for  the  masses  of  her  dark  hair : 

Frons    mm'irum    coronata,    supercilium    nigrata.      Roses 

and  lilies  vie,  of  course,  upon  the  cheeks  of  all ;  and 

sometimes   their  sweetness  surpasses   the   lily  of  the 

valley.     From  time  to  time  a  touch  of  truer  poetry 

occurs  ;  as,  for  instance  ^ — 

"  O  decora  super  ora 
Belli  Absalonis  1  " 

Or  take  again  the  outburst  of  passion  in  this  stanza, 
where  both  the  rhythm  and  the  ponderous  Latin 
words,  together  with  the  abrupt  transition  from  the 
third  to  the  fourth  line,  express  a  fine  exaltation :  ^ — 

''Frons  et  gula,  labra,  mentum 
Dant  amoris  alimentum ; 
Crines  ejus  adamavi, 
Quoniam  fuere  flavi." 

The  same  kind  of  enthusiasm  is  more  elaborately 
worked  out  in  the  following  comparisons :  ^ — 

"Matutini  sideris 
Jubar  praeis, 
Et  lilium 
Rosaque  periere : 
Micat  ebur  dentium 
Per  labium, 
Ut  Sirium 
Credat  quia  enitere." 

As  might  be  expected,  such  lovers  were  not  satisfied 
with  contemplative  pleasures  :  ^ — 

1   Carm.  Bur.,  p.  200.  "   Ibid.,  p.  23 1, 

^  Ibid.,  p.  121.  •*  Ibid.,  p.  135. 


WINE,  WOMEN,   AND   SONG         33 

"Visu,   colloquio, 
Contactu,  basic, 
Frui  virgo  dederat ; 
Sed  aberat 
Linea  posterior 
Et  melior  amori, 
Quam  nisi  transiero, 
De  cetero 

Sunt  quae  dantur  alia 
Materia  furori." 

The  conclusion  of  this  song,  which,  taken  in  its 
integrity,  deserves  to  be  regarded  as  typical  of  what  is 
pagan  in  this  erotic  literature,  may  be  studied  in  the 
Appendix  to  Carmina  Bur  ana. 

Occasionally  the  lover's  desire  touches  a  higher 
point  of  spirituality  ;i — 

"  Non  tactu  sanabor  labiorum, 
Nisi  cor  unum  fiat  duorum 
Et  idem  veile.     Vale,   flos  florum  I  " 

Occasionally,  the  sensuous  fervour  assumes  a  passion- 
ate intensity  :  - — 

'<  Nocte  cum  ea  si  dormiero, 
Si  sua  labra  semel  suxero, 

Mortem  subire,  placenter  obire,  vitamque  finire, 
Libens  potero." 

Very  rarely  there  is  a  strong  desire  expressed  for 
fidelity,  as  in  a  beautiful  lyric  of  absence,  which  I  hope 
to  give  translated  in  full  in  my  17th  Section. 

But  the  end  to  be  attained  is  always  such  as  is 
summed  up  in  these  brief  words  placed  upon  a  girl's 
lips :  2 — 

1   Carm.  Bur.,  p.  145.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  230. 

^  Ibid.,  p.   133. 


34        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

"  Dulcissime, 
Totam  tibi  subdo  me," 

And  the  motto  of  both  sexes  is  this  :  ^ — 

"  Quicquid  agant  alii, 
Juvenes  amemus." 

It  may  be  added,  in  conclusion,  that  the  sweethearts 
of  our  students  seem  to  have  been  mostly  girls  of  the 
working  and  rustic  classes,  sometimes  women  of  bad 
fame,  rarely  married  women.  In  no  case  that  has 
come  beneath  my  notice  is  there  any  hint  that  one  of 
y/"  them   aspired   to   such   amours   with    noble    ladies  as 

distinguished  the  Troubadours.  A  democratic  tone,  a 
tone  of  the  proletariate,  is  rather  strangely  blent  with 
the  display  of  learning,  and  with  the  more  than 
common  Hterary  skill  apparent  in  their  work. 


XI 

The  drinking-songs  are  equally  spontaneous  and 
fresh.  J  Anacreon  pales  before  the  brilliancy  of  the 
Archipoeta  when  wine  is  in  his  veins,  and  the  fountain 
of  the  Bacchic  chant  swells  with  gushes  of  strongly 
emphasised  bold  double  rhymes,  each  throbbing  like  a 
man's  firm  stroke  upon  the  strings  of  lyres.  A  fine 
audacity  breathes  through  the  praises  of  the  wine-god, 
sometimes  rising  to  lyric  rapture,  sometimes  sinking  to 
parody  and  innuendo,  but  always  carrying  the  bard  on 
rolling  wheels  along  the  paths  of  song.     The  reality 

1  Carm.  Bur.,  p.  25** 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG         35 

of  the  inspiration  is  indubitable.  These  Bacchanalian 
choruses  have  been  indited  in  the  tavern,  with  a  crowd 
of  topers  round  the  poet,  with  the  rattle  of  the  dice- 
box  ringing  in  his  ears,  and  with  the  facile  maidens  of 
his  volatile  amours  draining  the  wine-cup  at  his  elbow. 

Wine   is   celebrated    as    the   source   of  pleasure   in      '-^^ 
social  life,  provocative  of  love,  parent  of  poetry  :  ^ — 

'•'Bacchus  forte  superans 
Pectora  virorum 
In  amorem  concitat 
Animos  eorum. 

Bacchus  saepe  visitans 

Mulierum  genus 
Facit  eas  subditas 

Tibi,  O  tu  Venus!" 

From  his  temple,  the    tavern,  water-drinkers   and 
fastidious  persons  are  peremptorily  warned  :  ^ — 

"  Qui  potare  non  potestis, 
Ite  procul  ab  his  festis ; 
Non  est  hie  locus  modestis  : 
Devitantur  plus  quam  pestis." 

The  tavern  is  loved  better  than  the  church,  and  a 
bowl  of  wine  than  the  sacramental  chalice :  ^ — 

"  Magis  quam  ecclesiam 
Diligo  tabernam." 

"  Mihi  sapit  dulcius 
Vinum  de  taberna, 
Quam  quod  aqua  miscuit 
Praesulis  pincerna." 

^   Carm.  Bur.,  p.  238.  2  Ibid.,  p.  240. 

^  Wright's  Walter  Mapes^  p.  xlv.  ;    Carm.  Bur.,  p.  69. 


36         WINE,  WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

i__  As  in  the  love-songs,  so  in  these  drinking-songs  we 
find  no  lack  of  mythological  allusions.  Nor  are  the 
grammatical  quibbles,  which  might  also  have  been 
indicated  as  a  defect  of  the  erotic  poetry,  conspicuous 
by  absence.  But  both  alike  are  impotent  to  break 
the  spell  of  evident  sincerity.  We  discount  them  as 
belonging  to  the  euphuism  of  a  certain  epoch,  and  are 
rather  surprised  than  otherwise  that  they  should  not  be 
more  apparent.  The  real  and  serious  defect  of  Goli- 
ardic  literature  is  not  affectation,  but  something  very 
different,  which  I  shall  try  to  indicate  in  the  last 
Section  of  this  treatise.  Venus  and  Helen,  Liber  and 
Lyaeus,  are  but  the  current  coin  of  poetic  diction 
common  to  the  whole  student  class.  These  Olympian 
deities  merge  without  a  note  of  discord  into  the  dim 
background  of  a  medieval  pothouse  or  the  sylvan 
shades  of  some  ephemeral  amour,  leaving  the  realism 
of  natural  appetite  in  either  case  untouched. 

It  iz  by  no  means  the  thin  and  conventional  sprink- 
ling of  classical  erudition  which  makes    these  poems 
of  the    Goliardi  pagan,  and   reminds    the    student  of 
Renaissance  art.     Conversely,  the  scholastic  plays  on 
words  which  they  contain  do  not  stamp  them  but  as 
medieval.       Both    of   these    qualities    are    rococo    and 
superficial  rather  than  essential  and  distinctive  in  their 
style.     After  making  due  allowances  for  either  element 
of  oddity,  a  true  connoisseur  will  gratefully  appreciate 
the  spontaneous  note  of  enjoyment,  the  disengagement 
from    ties    and    duties    imposed  by  temporal  respecta- 
bility, the  frank  animalism,  which  connects  these  vivid 
hynms    to     Bacchus    and    Venus    with    past    Aristo- 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG         37 

phanes  and  future  Rabelais.  They  celebrate  the 
eternal  presence  of  mirth-making  powers  in  hearts  of 
men,  apart  from  time  and  place  and  varying  dogmas 
which  do  not  concern  deities  of  Nature. 


XII 

I  The  time  has  now  come  for  me  to  Introduce  my  l^* 
reader  to  the  versions  I  have  made  from  the  songs  of 
Wandering  Students.  I  must  remind  him  that,  while 
the  majority  of  these  translations  aim  at  literal  exact- 
ness and  close  imitation  of  the  originals  in  rhyme  and 
structure,  others  are  more  paraphrastic.  It  has  always 
been  my  creed  that  a  good  translation  should  resemble 
a  plaster-cast ;  the  English  being  plaque  upon  the 
original,  so  as  to  reproduce  its  exact  form,  although  it 
cannot  convey  the  eifects  of  bronze  or  marble,  which 
belong  to  the  material  of  the  work  of  art.  But  this 
method  has  not  always  seemed  to  me  the  most  desir- 
able for  rendering  poems,  an  eminent  quality  of  which 
is  facility  and  spontaneity.  In  order  to  obtain  that 
quality  in  our  language,  the  form  has  occasionally  to 
be  sacrificed. 

What  Coleridge  has  reported  to  have  said  of 
Southey  may  be  applied  to  a  translator.  He  too  "  is 
in  some  sort  like  an  elegant  setter  of  jewels  ;  the  stones 
are  not  his  own :  he  gives  them  all  the  advantage  of 
his  art,  but  not  their  native  brilliancy."  I  feel  even 
more  than  this  when  I  attempt  translation,  and  reflect 
that,  unlike  the  jeweller,  it  is  my  doom  to  reduce  the 


38        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

lustre  of  the  gems  I  handle,  even  if  I  do  not  substitute 
paste  and  pebbles.  Yet  I  am  frequently  enticed  to 
repeat  experiments,  which  afterwards  I  regard  in  the 
light  of  failures.  What  allures  me  first  is  the  pleasure 
of  passing  into  that  intimate  familiarity  with  art  which 
only  a  copyist  or  a  translator  enjoys.  I  am  next  im- 
pelled by  the  desire  to  fix  the  attention  of  readers  on 
things  which  I  admire,  and  which  are  possibly  beyond 
their  scope  of  view.  Lastly  comes  that  ignis  fatuus  of 
the  hope,  for  ever  renewed,  if  also  for  ever  disappointed, 
that  some  addition  may  be  made  in  this  way  to  the 
wealth  of  English  poetry.  A  few  exquisite  pieces  in 
Latin  literature,  the  Catullian  Ilk  mi  par ^  for  example, 
a  few  in  our  own,  such  as  Jonson's  Drinh  to  me  only 
<with  thine  eyes,  are  translations.  Possibly  the  miracle 
of  such  poetic  transmutation  may  be  repeated  for  me  ; 
possibly  an  English  song  may  come  to  birth  by  my 
means  also.  With  this  hope  in  view,  the  translator  is 
strongly  tempted  to  engraft  upon  his  versions  elegances 
in  the  spirit  of  his  native  language,  or  to  use  the 
motives  of  the  original  for  improvisations  in  his  own 
manner.  I  must  plead  guilty  to  having  here  and  there 
yielded  to  this  temptation,  as  may  appear  upon  com- 
parison of  my  English  with  the  Latin.  All  translation 
is  a  compromise  ;  and  while  being  conscious  of  having 
to  sacrifice  much,  the  translator  finds  himself  often 
seeking  to  add  something  as  a  makeweight. 

I  shall  divide  my  specimens  into  nine  Sections. 
The  first  will  include  those  which  deal  with  the  Order 
of  Wandering  Students  in  general,  winding  up  with 
tlie    Confession  ascribed  to   Golias,  the   father   of  the 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG         39 

family.  The  second,  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  are 
closely  connected,  since  they  contain  spring-songs, 
pastorals,  descriptive  poems  touching  upon  love,  and 
erotic  lyrics.  The  sixth  Section  will  be  devoted  to  a 
few  songs  of  exile,  doubt,  and  sorrow.  In  the  seventh 
we  shall  reach  anacreontics  on  the  theme  of  wine, 
passing  in  the  eighth  to  parodies  and  comic  pieces. 
Four  or  five  serious  compositions  will  close  the  list  in 
the  ninth  Section. 

At  the  end  of  the  book  I  mean  to  print  a  table  con- 
taining detailed  references  to  the  originals  of  the  songs 
I  have  chosen  for  translation,  together  with  an  index 
of  the  principal  works  that  have  been  published  on 
this  subject. 


XIII 

The  first  song  which  concerns  the  Order  of 
Wandering  Students  in  general  has  been  attributed  to 
the  Archipoeta  or  head-bard  of  the  guild.  Whoever 
this  poet  may  have  been,  it  is  to  him  that  we  owe  the 
Confession  of  Go/ias,  by  far  the  most  spirited  com- 
position of  the  whole  Goliardic  species.  I  do  not 
think  the  style  of  the  poem  on  the  Order,  though  it 
belongs  to  a  good  period,  justifies  our  ascribing  it  to  so 
inspired  and  genial  a  lyrist. 

The  argument  runs  as  follows.  Just  as  commission 
was  given  to  the  Apostles  to  go  forth  and  preach  in 
the  whole  world,  so  have  the  Wandering  Students  a 
vocation  to  travel,  and  to  test  the  hearts  of  men  wher- 


40        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND    SONG 

ever  they  may  sojourn.  A  burlesque  turn  is  given  to 
this  function  of  the  Vagi.  Yet  their  consciousness  of 
a  satiric  mission,  their  willingness  to  pose  as  critics  of 
society  from  the  independent  vantage-ground  of  vaga- 
bondage, seems  seriously  hinted  at. 

The  chief  part  of  the  song  is  devoted  to  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  comprehensive  nature  of  the  Order,  which 
receives  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  and  makes  no 
distinction  of  nationality.  The  habitual  poverty  of  its 
members,  their  favourite  pastimes  and  vices,  their  love 
of  gaming  and  hatred  of  early  rising,  are  set  forth  with 
some  humour. 


ON   THE    ORDER    OF    WANDERING 
STUDENTS 

No.  I 

AT  the  mandate.  Go  ye  forth, 
Through  the  whole  world  hurry  ! 
Priests  tramp  out  toward  south  and  north, 

Monks  and  hermits  skurry, 
Levites  smooth  the  gospel  leave. 

Bent  on  ambulation ; 
Each  and  all  to  our  sect  cleave, 
Which  is  life's  salvation. 

In  this  sect  of  ours  'tis  writ : 

Prove  all  things  in  season  ; 
Weigh  this  life  and  judge  of  it 

By  your  riper  reason  ; 


ORDER  OF  WANDERING  STUDENTS    41 

'Gainst  all  evil  clerks  be  you 

Steadfast  in  resistance, 
Who  refuse  large  tithe  and  due 

Unto  your  subsistence. 

Marquesses,  Bavarians, 

Austrians  and  Saxons, 
Noblemen  and  chiefs  of  clans, 

Glorious  by  your  actions  ! 
Listen,  comrades  all,  I  pray. 

To  these  new  decretals  : 
Misers  they  must  meet  decay, 

Niggardly  gold -beetles. 

We  the  laws  of  charity 

Found,  nor  let  them  crumble  ; 
For  into  our  order  we 

Take  both  high  and  humble  ; 
Rich  and  poor  men  we  receive. 

In  our  bosom  cherish  ; 
Welcome  those  the  shavelings  leave 

At  their  doors  to  perish. 

We  receive  the  tonsured  monk. 

Let  him  take  his  pittance  ; 
And  the  parson  with  his  punk, 

If  he  craves  admittance  ; 
Masters  with  their  bands  of  boys. 

Priests  with  high  dominion  ; 
But  the  scholar  who  enjoys 

Just  one  coat's  our  minion  ! 


42         WINE,   WOMEN,  AND   SONG 

This  our  sect  doth  entertain 

Just  men  and  unjust  ones  ; 
Halt,  lame,  weak  of  limb  or  brain, 

Strong  men  and  robust  ones  ; 
Those  who  flourish  in  their  pride, 

Those  whom  age  makes  stupid  ; 
Frigid  folk  and  hot  folk  fried 

In  the  fires  of  Cupid. 

Tranquil  souls  and  bellicose, 

Peacemaker  and  foeman  ; 
Czech  and  Hun,  and  mixed  with  those 

German,  Slav,  and  Roman  ; 
Men  of  middling  size  and  weight, 

Dwarfs  and  giants  mighty  ; 
Men  of  modest  heart  and  state. 

Vain  men,  proud  and  flighty. 

Of  the  Wanderers'  order  I 

Tell  the  Legislature — 
They  whose  life  is  free  and  high. 

Gentle  too  their  nature — 
They  who'd  rather  scrape  a  fat 

Dish  in  gravy  swimming. 
Than  in  sooth  to  marvel  at 

Barns  with  barley  brimming. 

Now  this  order,  as  I  ken, 

Is  called  sect  or  section, 
Since  its  sectaries  are  men 

Divers  in  complexion  ; 


'^^ 


ORDER  OF  WANDERING  STUDENTS    43 

Therefore  hie  and  haec  and  hoc 

Suit  it  in  declension, 
Since  so  multiform  a  flock 

Here  finds  comprehension. 

This  our  order  hath  decried 

Matins  with  a  warning  ; 
For  that  certain  phantoms  gUde 

In  the  early  morning, 
Whereby  pass  into  man's  brain 

Visions  of  vain  folly  ; 
Early  risers  are  insane, 

Racked  by  melancholy. 

This  our  order  doth  proscribe 

All  the  year  round  matins  ; 
When  they've  left  their  beds,  our  tribe 

In  the  tap  sing  latins  ; 
There  they  call  for  wine  for  all. 

Roasted  fowl  and  chicken  ; 
Hazard's  threats  no  hearts  appal. 

Though  his  strokes  still  thicken. 

This  our  order  doth  forbid 

Double  clothes  with  loathing  : 
He  whose  nakedjiess  is  hid 

With  one  vest  hath  clothing  : 
Soon  one  throws  his.  cloak  aside 

At  the  dice-box'  calling  ; 
Next  his  girdle  is  untied. 

While  the  cards  are  falling. 


44        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

What  I've  said  of  upper  clothes 

To  the  nether  reaches ; 
They  who  own  a  shirt,  let  those 

Think  no  more  of  breeches  ; 
If  one  boasts  big  boots  to  use, 

Let  him  leave  his  gaiters  ; 
They  who  this  firm  law  refuse 

Shall  be  counted  traitors. 

No  one,  none  shall  wander  forth 

Fasting  from  the  table ; 
If  thou'rt  poor,  from  south  and  north 

Beg  as  thou  art  able  ! 
Hath  it  not  been  often  seen 

That  one  coin  brings  many, 
When  a  gamester  on  the  green 

Stakes  his  lucky  penny  ? 

No  one  on  the  road  should  walk 

'Gainst  the  wind — 'tis  madness  ; 
Nor  in  poverty  shall  stalk 

With  a  face  of  sadness  ; 
Let  him  bear  him  bravely  then, 

Hope  sustain  his  spirit ; 
After  heavy  trials  men 

Better  luck  inherit ! 

While  throughout  the  world  you  rove, 
Thus  uphold  your  banners  ; 

Give  these  reasons  why  you  prove 
Hearts  of  men  and  manners  : 


ON  THE  DECAY  OF  THE  ORDER  45 

"  To  reprove  the  reprobate, 

Probity  approving, 
Improbate  from  approbate 

To  remove,  I'm  moving." 

The  next  song  is  a  lament  for  the  decay  of  the 
Order  and  the  suppression  of  its  privileges.  It  was 
written,  to  all  appearances,  at  a  later  date,  and  is 
inferior  in  style.  The  Goliardi  had  already,  we 
learn  from  it,  exchanged  poverty  for  luxury.  Instead 
of  tramping  on  the  hard  hoof,  they  moved  with  a 
retinue  of  mounted  servants.  We  seem  to  trace  in  the 
lament  a  change  from  habits  of  simple  vagabondage  to 
professional  dependence,  as  minstrels  and  secretaries, 
upon  men  of  rank  in  Church  and  State,  which  came 
over  the  Goliardic  class.  This  poem,  it  may  be 
mentioned,  does  not  occur  in  the  Carm'tna  Burana^  nor 
is  it  included  among  those  which  bear  the  name 
of  Walter  Mapes  or  Map. 


O 


ON   THE   DECAY   OF    THE   ORDER 

No.  2 

NCE  (it  was  in  days  of  yore) 
This  our  order  flourished ; 
Popes,  whom  Cardinals  adore, 
It  with  honours  nourished  ; 
Licences  desirable 

They  gave,  nought  desiring  ; 
While  our  prayers,  the  beads  we  tell, 
Served  us  for  our  hiring. 


46        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND    SONG 

Now  this  order  (so  time  runs) 

Is  made  tributary  ; 
With  the  ruck  of  Adam's  sons 

We  must  draw  and  carry  ; 
Ground  by  common  serfdom  down, 

By  oui'  debts  confounded, 
Debts  to  market-place  and  town 

With  the  Jews  compounded. 

Once  ('twas  when  the  simple  state 

Of  our  order  lasted) 
All  men  praised  us,  no  man's  hate 

Harried  us  or  wasted  ; 
Rates  and  taxes  on  our  crew 

There  was  none  to  levy  ; 
But  the  sect,  douce  men  and  true. 

Served  God  in  a  bevy. 

Now  some  envious  folks,  who  spy 

Sumptuous  equipages. 
Horses,  litters  passing  by. 

And  a  host  of  pages. 
Say,  "  Unless  their  purses  were 

Quite  with  wealth  o'erflowing, 
They  could  never  thus,  I  swear, 

Round  about  be  going  !  " 

Such  men  do  not  think  nor  own 
How  with  toil  we  bend  us. 

Not  to  feed  ourselves  alone. 
But  the  folk  who  tend  us  : 


ON   THE   DECAY   OF   THE    ORDER     47 

On  all  comers,  all  who  come, 

We  our  substance  lavish, 
Therefore  'tis  a  trifling  sum 

For  ourselves  we  ravish. 

On  this  subject,  at  this  time. 

What  we've  said  suffices  : 
Let  us  leave  it,  lead  the  rhyme 

Back  to  our  devices  : 
We  the  miseries  of  this  life 

Bear  with  cheerful  spirit. 
That  Heaven's  bounty  after  strife 

We  may  duly  merit. 

'Tis  a  sign  that  God  the  Lord 

Will  not  let  us  perish. 
Since  with  scourge  and  rod  and  sword 

He  our  souls  doth  cherish  ; 
He  amid  this  vale  of  woes 

Makes  us  bear  the  burden, 
That  true  joys  in  heaven's  repose 

May  be  ours  for  guerdon. 

Next  in  order  to  these  poems,  which  display  the 
Wandering  Students  as  a  class,  I  will  produce  two 
that  exhibit  their  mode  of  life  in  detail.  The  first  is 
a  begging  petition,  addressed  by  a  scholar  on  the  tramp 
to  the  great  man  of  the  place  where  he  is  staying. 
The  name  of  the  place,  as  I  have  already  noticed, 
is  only  indicated  by  an  N.  The  nasal  whine  of 
a  suppliant  for  alms,  begging,  as  Erasmus  begged, 
not   in  the  name  of  charity,  but  of  learning,  makes 


48        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

itself  heard  both  in  the  rhyme  and  rhythm  of  the 
original  Latin.  I  have  tried  to  follow  the  sing-song 
doggerel. 


A  WANDERING  STUDENT'S  PETITION 

No.  3 

I,  A  wandering  scholar  lad, 
Born  for  toil  and  sadness. 
Oftentimes  am  driven  by 
Poverty  to  madness. 

Literature  and  knowledge  I 
Fain  would  still  be  earning. 

Were  it  not  that  want  of  pelf 
Makes  me  cease  from  learning. 

These  torn  clothes  that  cover  me 

Are  too  thin  and  rotten  ; 
Oft  I  have  to  suffer  cold. 

By  the  warmth  forgotten. 

Scarce  I  can  attend  at  chmch. 

Sing  God's  praises  duly  ; 
Mass  and  vespers  both  I  miss. 

Though  I  love  them  truly. 

Oh,  thou  pride  of  N , 


By  thy  worth  I  pray  thee 
Give  the  suppliant  help  in  need. 
Heaven  will  sure  repay  thee. 


WANDERING  STUDENT'S  PETITION    49 

Take  a  mind  unto  thee  now 

Like  unto  St.  Martin  ; 
Clothe  the  pilgrim's  nakedness, 

Wish  him  well  at  parting. 

So  may  God  translate  your  soul 

Into  peace  eternal, 
And  the  bliss  of  saints  be  yours 

In  His  realm  supernal. 

The  second  is  a  jovial  Song  of  the  Open  Road, 
throbbing  with  the  exhilaration  of  young  life  and 
madcap  impudence.  We  must  imagine  that  two 
vagabond  students  are  drinking  together  before  they 
part  upon  their  several  ways.  One  addresses  the  other 
2JS,f rater  catholic e,  vir  aJ)os to/ice,  vows  to  befriend  him, 
and  expounds  the  laws  of  loyalty  which  bind  the 
brotherhood  together.  To  the  rest  of  the  world  they 
are  a  terror  and  a  nuisance.  Honest  folk  are  jeeringly 
forbidden  to  beware  of  the  quadrivium,  which  is  apt  to 
form  a  fourfold  rogue  instead  of  a  scholar  in  four 
branches  of  knowledge. 

The  Latin  metre  is  so  light,  careless,  and  airy,  that 
I  must  admit  an  almost  complete  failure  to  do  it  justice 
in  my  English  version.  The  refrain  appears  intended 
to  imitate  a  bugle-call. 


£ 


50        WINE,  WOMEN,  AND   SONG 

A   SONG   OF   THE   OPEN   ROAD 

No.  4 

"E  in  our  wandering, 
Blithesome  and  squandering, 
Tara,  tantara,  teino  ! 


W 


Eat  to  satiety, 
Drink  with  propriety  ; 

Tara,  tantara,  teino  ! 

Laugh  till  our  sides  we  split, 
Rags  on  our  hides  we  fit ; 

Tara,  tantara,  teino  1 

Jesting  eternally. 
Quaffing  infernally : 

Tara,  tantara,  teino  ! 

Craft's  in  the  bone  of  us. 
Fear  'tis  unknown  of  us ; 

Tara,  tantara,  teino  1 

When  we're  in  neediness, 
Thieve  we  with  greediness : 

Tara,  tantara,  teino  ! 

Brother  catholical, 
Man  apostolicla, 

Tara,  tantara,  teino  1 

Say  what  you  will  have  done, 
What  you  ask  'twill  be  done ! 
Tara,  tantara,  teino  ! 


A   SONG   OF   THE   OPEN   ROAD     51 

Folk,  fear  the  toss  of  the 
Horns  of  philosophy  ! 

Tara,  tantara,  teino  ! 

Here  comes  a  quadruple 
Spoiler  and  prodigal ! 

Tara,  tantara,  teino ! 

License  and  vanity 
Pamper  insanity : 

Tara,  tantara,  teino  ! 

As  the  Pope  bade  us  do, 
Brother  to  brother's  true  : 

Tara,  tantara,  teino  ! 

Brother,  best  friend,  adieu  ! 
Now,  I  must  part  from  you ! 
Tara,  tantara,  teino  ! 

When  will  our  meeting  be  ? 
Glad  shall  our  greeting  be  ! 

Tara,  tantara,  teino  ! 

Vows  valedictory 
Now  have  the  victory  ; 

Tara,  tantara,  teino  ! 

Clasped  on  each  other's  breast. 
Brother  to  brother  pressed, 

Tara,  tantara,  teino  ! 

In  the  fourth  place  I  insert  the  Confession  of  Golias. 
This  important  composition  lays  bare  the  inner  nature 


p 


52         WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

of  a  Wandering  Student,  describing  his  vagrant  habits, 
his  volatile  and  indiscriminate  amours,  his  passion  for 
the  dice-box,  his  devotion  to  wine,  and  the  poetic 
inspiration  he  was  wont  to  draw  from  it. 

In  England  this  Confession  was  attributed  to  Walter 
Map ;  and  the  famous  drinking-song,  on  which  the 
Archdeacon  of  Oxford's  reputation  principally  rests  in 
modern  times,  was  extracted  from  the  stanzas  11  ef 
seq.^  But,  though  Wright  is  unwilling  to  refuse  Map 
such  honour  as  may  accrue  to  his  fame  from  the  com- 
position, we  have  little  reason  to  regard  it  as  his  work. 
The  song  was  clearly  written  at  Pavia — a  point  in- 
explicably overlooked  by  Wright  in  the  note  appended 
to  stanza  9 — and  the  Archbishop-elect  of  Cologne, 
who  is  appealed  to  by  name  in  stanza  24,  was  Reinald 
von  Dassel,  a  minister  of  Frederick  Barbarossa.  This 
circumstance  enables  us  to  determine  the  date  of  the 
|l  poem  between  1162  and  1165.  When  the  Confession 
was  manipulated  for  English  readers,  Praesul  Coven- 
trensium,  Praesul  miln  cognite,  and  0  pastor  ecclesiae 
were  in  several  MS.  redactions  substituted  for  Elect e 
Coloniae.  Instead  of  Papiae,  in  stanza  8,  we  read  in 
mundo  ;  but  in  stanza  9,  where  the  rhyme  required  it, 
Papiae  was  left  standing — a  sufficient  indication  of 
literary  rehandling  by  a  clumsy  scribe.  In  the  text  of 
the  Carmina  Bur  ana  ^  the  Confession  winds  up  with  a 
petition  that  Reinald  von  Dassel  should  employ  the 
poet  as  a  secretary,  or  should  bestow  some  mark  of  his 
bounty  upon  him. 

1   Wriglit's  Walter  Mapes,  p.  xlv. 


THE   CONFESSION   OF    GOLIAS      53 


THE   CONFESSION   OF    GOLIAS 

No.  5 

BOILING  in  my  spirit's  veins 
With  fierce  indignation, 
From  my  bitterness  of  soul 

Springs  self-revelation : 
Framed  am  I  of  flimsy  stuff, 

Fit  for  levitation, 
Like  a  thin  leaf  which  the  wind 
Scatters  from  its  station. 

While  it  is  the  wise  man's  part 

With  deliberation 
On  a  rock  to  base  his  heart's 

Permanent  foundation, 
With  a  running  river  I 

Find  my  just  equation. 
Which  beneath  the  self-same  sky 

Hath  no  habitation. 

Carried  am  I  like  a  ship 

Left  without  a  sailor, 
Like  a  bird  that  through  the  air 

Flies  where  tempests  hale  her  ; 
Chains  and  fetters  hold  me  not. 

Naught  avails  a  jailer  ; 
Still  I  find  my  fellows  out 

Toper,  gamester,  railer. 


m. 


54        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

To  my  mind  all  gravity 

Is  a  grave  subjection  ; 
Sweeter  far  than  honey  are 

Jokes  and  free  affection. 
All  that  Venus  bids  me  do, 

Do  I  with  erection, 
For  she  ne'er  in  heart  of  man 

Dwelt  with  dull  dejection.  "■'^' 

Down  the  broad  road  do  I  run, 

As  the  way  of  youth  is  ; 
\  Snare  myself  in  sin,  and  ne'er 

Think  where  faith  and  truth  is  ; 
Eager  far  for  pleasure  more 

Than  soul's  health,  the  sooth  is, 
For  this  flesh  of  mine  I  care. 

Seek  not  ruth  where  ruth  is. 

Prelate,  most  discreet  of  priests, 

Grant  me  absolution ! 
Dear's  the  death  whereof  I  die, 

Sweet  my  dissolution ; 
For  my  heart  is  wounded  by 

Beauty's  soft  suffusion  ; 
All  the  girls  I  come  not  nigh. 

Mine  are  in  illusion. 

'Tis  most  arduous  to  make 
Nature's  self  surrender  ; 

Seeing  girls,  to  blush  and  be 
Purity's  defender  ! 


THE   CONFESSION   OF    GOLIAS      55 

We  young  men  our  longings  ne'er 

Shall  to  stern  law  render, 
Or  preserve  our  fancies  from 

Bodies  smooth  and  tender. 

Who,  when  into  fire  he  falls. 

Keeps  him.self  from  burning  ? 
Who  within  Pavia's  walls 

Fame  of  chaste  is  earning  ? 
Venus  with  her  finger  calls 

Youths  at  every  turning, 
Snares  them  v;ith  her  eyes,  and  thralls 

With  her  amorous  yearning. 

If  you  brought  Hippolitus 

To  Pavia  Sunday, 
He'd  not  be  Hippolitus 

On  the  following  Monday  ; 
Venus  there  keeps  holiday 

Every  day  as  one  day  ; 
'Mid  these  towers  in  no  tower  dwells 

Venus  Verecunda. 

In  the  second  place  I  own 

To  the  vice  of  gaming  ; 
Cold  indeed  outside  I  seem, 

Yet  my  soul  is  flaming  : 
But  when  once  the  dice-box  hath 

Stripped  me  to  my  shaming. 
Make  I  songs  and  verses  fit 

For  the  world's  acclaiming. 


56         WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

In  the  third  place,  I  will  speak 

Of  the  tavern's  pleasure  ; 
For  I  never  found  nor  find 

There  the  least  displeasure  ; 
Nor  shall  find  it  till  I  greet 

Angels  without  measure, 
Singing  requiems  for  the  souls 

In  eternal  leisure. 

In  the  public-house  to  die 

Is  my  resolution ; 
Let  wine  to  my  lips  be  nigh 

At  life's  dissolution : 
That  will  make  the  angels  cry. 

With  glad  elocution, 
"  Grant  this  toper,  God  on  high, 

Grace  and  absolution  !  " 

With  the  cup  the  soul  lights  up, 

Inspirations  flicker  ; 
Nectar  lifts  the  soul  on  high 

With  its  heavenly  ichor  : 
To  my  lips  a  sounder  taste 

Hath  the  tavern's  liquor 
Than  the  wine  a  village  clerk 

Waters  for  the  vicar. 

Nature  gives  to  every  man 
Some  gift  serviceable  ; 

Write  I  never  could  nor  can 
Hungry  at  the  table  ; 


THE   CONFESSION   OF    GOLIAS      57 

Fasting,  any  stripling  to 

Vanquish  me  is  able  ; 
Hunger,  thirst,  I  liken  to 

Death  that  ends  the  fable. 


Nature  gives  to  every  man 

Gifts  as  she  is  willing  ; 
I  compose  my  verses  when 

Good  wine  I  am  swilling, 
Wine  the  best  for  jolly  guest 

Jolly  hosts  are  filling  ; 
From  such  wine  rare  fancies  fine 

Flow  like  dews  distilling. 

Such  my  verse  is  wont  to  be 

As  the  wine  I  swallow ; 
No  ripe  thoughts  enliven  me 

While  my  stomach's  hollow  ; 
Hungry  wits  on  hungry  lips 

Like  a  shadow  follow. 
But  when  once  Vm  in  my  cups, 

I  can  beat  Apollo. 

Never  to  my  spirit  yet 

Flew  poetic  vision 
Until  first  my  belly  had 

Plentiful  provision  ; 
Let  but  Bacchus  in  the  brain 

Take  a  strong  position, 
Then  comes  Phoebus  flowing  in 

With  a  fine  precision. 


58        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

There  are  poets,  worthy  men, 

Shrink  from  pubHc  places, 
And  in  lurking-hole  or  den 

Hide  their  pallid  faces  ; 
There  they  study,  sweat,  and  woo 

Pallas  and  the  Graces, 
But  bring  nothing  forth  to  view 

Worth  the  girls'  embraces. 

Fasting,  thirsting,  toil  the  bards, 

Swift  years  flying  o'er  them  ; 
Shun  the  strife  of  open  life. 

Tumults  of  the  forum  ; 
They,  to  sing  some  deathless  thing. 

Lest  the  world  ignore  them. 
Die  the  death,  expend  their  breath. 

Drowned  in  dull  decorum. 

Lo !  my  frailties  I've  betrayed. 

Shown  you  every  token. 
Told  you  what  your  servitors 

Have  against  me  spoken  ; 
But  of  those  men  each  and  all 

Leave  their  sins  unspoken, 
Though  they  play,  enjoy  to-day. 

Scorn  their  pledges  broken. 

Now  within  the  audience-room 

Of  this  blessed  prelate. 
Sent  to  hunt  out  vice,  and  from 

Hearts  of  men  expel  it ; 


THE   CONFESSION   OF    GOLIAS      59 

Let  him  rise,  nor  spare  the  bard, 

Cast  at  him  a  pellet ; 
He  whose  heart  knows  not  crime's  smart, 

Show  my  sin  and  tell  it ! 

\ 

V 

I  have  uttered  openly 

All  I  knew  that  shamed  me. 
And  have  spued  the  poison  forth 

That  so  long  defamed  me  ; 
Of  my  old  ways  I  repent. 

New  life  hath  reclaimed  me  ; 
God  beholds  the  heart — 'twas  man 

Viewed  the  face  and  blamed  me. 

Goodness  now  hath  won  my  love, 

I  am  wroth  with  vices  ; 
Made  a  new  man  in  my  mind, 

Lo,  my  soul  arises ! 
Like  a  babe  new  milk  I  drink — 

Milk  for  me  suffices, 
Lest  my  heart  should  longer  be 

Filled  with  vain  devices. 

Thou  Elect  of  fair  Cologne, 

Listen  to  my  pleading  ! 
Spurn  not  thou  the  penitent ; 

See,  his  heart  is  bleeding  ! 
Give  me  penance  !   what  is  due 

For  my  faults  exceeding 
I  will  bear  with  willing  cheer, 

All  thy  precepts  heeding. 


6o         WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Lo,  the  lion,  king  of  beasts, 

Spares  the  meek  and  lowly  ; 
Toward  submissive  creatures  he 

Tames  his  anger  wholly. 
Do  the  like,  ye  powers  of  earth, 

Temporal  and  holy ! 
^  Bitterness  is  more  than's  right 

When  'tis  bitter  solely. 


XIV 

Having  been  introduced  to  the  worshipful  order  of 
vagrants  both  in  their  collective  and  in  their  personal 
capacity,  we  will  now  follow  them  to  the  woods  and 
fields  in  spring.  It  was  here  that  they  sought  love- 
adventures  and  took  pastime  after  the  restraints  of 
winter. 

The  spring-songs  are  all,  in  the  truest  sense  of  the 
word,  lieder — lyrics  for  music.  Their  affinities  of  form 
and  rhythm  are  less  with  ecclesiastical  verse  than  with 
the  poetry  of  the  Minnesinger  and  the  Troubadour. 
Sometimes  we  are  reminded  of  the  French  pastourelle, 
sometimes  of  the  rustic  ditty,  with  its  monotonous 
refrain. 

The  exhilaration  of  the  season  which  they  breathe 
has  something  of  the  freshness  of  a  lark's  song,  some- 
thing at  times  of  the  richness  of  the  nightingale's 
lament.  The  defect  of  the  species  may  be  indicated 
in  a  single  phrase.  It  is  a  tedious  reiteration  of 
commonplaces  in  the  opening  stanzas.  Here,  however, 
is  a  lark-song. 


SPFiING 


WELCOME   TO   SPRING  63 


WELCOME    TO    SPRING 

No.  6 

SPRING  is  coming  !   longed-for  spring 
Now  his  joy  discloses  ; 
On  his  fair  brow  in  a  ring 

Bloom  empurpled  roses ! 
Birds  are  gay ;   how  sweet  their  lay  ! 

Tuneful  is  the  measure  ; 
The  wild  wood  grows  green  again, 
Songsters  change  our  winter's  pain 
To  a  mirthful  pleasure. 

Now  let  young  men  gather  flowers, 

On  their  foreheads  bind  them, 
Maidens  pluck  them  from  the  bowers. 

Then,  when  they  have  twined  them, 
Breathe  perfume  from  bud  and  bloom, 

Where  young  love  reposes. 
And  into  the  meadows  so 
All  together  laughing  go. 

Crowned  with  ruddy  roses. 

Here  again  the  nightingale's  song,  contending  with 
the  young  man's  heart's  lament  of  love,  makes  itself 
heard. 


64         WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

THE  LOVER  AND  THE  NIGHTINGALE 

No.  7 

THESE  hours  of  spring  are  jolly  ; 
Maidens,  be  gay ! 
Shake  off  dull  melancholy, 
Ye  lads,  to-day  ! 
Oh  !  all  abloom  am  I  ! 
It  is  a  maiden  love  that  makes  me  sigh, 
A  new,  new  love  it  is  wherewith  I  die ! 

The  nightingale  is  singing 

So  sweet  a  lay  ! 
Her  glad  voice  heavenward  flinging — 

No  check,  no  stay. 

Flower  of  girls  love-laden 

Is  my  sweetheart ; 
Of  roses  red  the  maiden 

For  whom  I  smart. 

The  promise  that  she  gives  me 

Makes  my  heart  bloom  ; 
If  she  denies,  she  drives  me 

Forth  to  the  gloom. 

My  maid,  to  me  relenting, 

Is  fain  for  play ; 
Her  pure  heart,  unconscnting, 

Saith,  *'  Lover,  stay  !  " 


LOVER   AND   NIGHTINGALE        65 

Hush,  Philomel,  thy  singing, 

This  little  rest ! 
Let  the  soul's  song  rise  ringing 

Up  from  the  breast ! 

In  desolate  Decembers 

Man  bides  his  time  : 
Spring  stirs  the  slumbering  embers  ; 

Love-juices  climb. 

Come,  mistress,  come,  my  maiden  ! 

Bring  joy  to  me  ! 
Come,  come,  thou  beauty-laden ! 
I  die  for  thee  ! 
O  all  abloom  am  I  ! 
It  is  a  maiden  love  that  makes  me  sigh, 
A  new,  new  love  it  is  wherewith  I  die  ! 

There  is  a  very  pretty  Invitation  to  Touth,  the  refrain 
of  which,  though  partly  undecipherable,  seems  to 
indicate  an  Italian  origin.  I  have  thought  it  well  to 
omit  this  refrain ;  but  it  might  be  rendered  thus, 
maintaining  the  strange  and  probably  corrupt  reading 
of  the  last  line  : — 

"  List,  my  fair,   list,  tela  mia, 
To  the  thousand  charms  of  Venus  1 
Da  /iizevaleria." 


66         WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

THE    INVITATION   TO   YOUTH 

No.  8 

TAKE  your  pleasure,  dance  and  play. 
Each  with  other  while  ye  may  : 
Youth  is  nimble,  full  of  grace  ; 
Age  is  lame,  of  tardy  pace. 

We  the  wars  of  love  should  wage. 
Who  are  yet  of  tender  age  ; 
'Neath  the  tents  of  Venus  dwell 
All  the  joys  that  youth  loves  well. 

Young  men  kindle  heart's  desire ; 
You  may  liken  them  to  fire  : 
Old  men  frighten  love  away 
With  cold  frost  and  dry  decay. 

A  roundelay,  which  might  be  styled  the  Praise  of 
May  or  the  exhortation  to  be  liberal  in  love  by  The 
Example  of  the  Rose,  shall  follow. 

THE    EXAMPLE    OF   THE    ROSE 

No.  9 

WINTER'S  untruth  yields  at  last. 
Spring  renews  old  mother  earth  ; 
Angry  storms  are  overpast, 

Sunbeams  fill  the  air  with  mirth  ; 
Pregnant,  ripening  unto  birth. 
All  the  world  reposes. 


THE   VOW   TO   CUPID  67 

Our  delightful  month  of  May, 
Not  by  birth,  but  by  degree, 

Took  the  first  place,  poets  say ; 
Since  the  whole  year's  cycle  he, 
Youngest,  loveliest,  leads  with  glee, 
And  the  cycle  closes. 

From  the  honours  of  the  rose 

They  decline,  the  rose  abuse, 
Who,  when  roses  red  unclose, 

Seek  not  their  own  sweets  to  use ; 

'Tis  with  largess,  liberal  dues. 
That  the  rose  discloses. 

Taught  to  wanton,  taught  to  play, 
By  the  young  year's  wanton  flower, 

We  will  take  no  heed  to-day. 

Have  no  thought  for  thrift  this  hour  ; 
Thrift,  whose  uncongenial  power 
Laws  on  youth  imposes. 

Another  song,  blending  the  praises  of  spring  with  a 
little  pagan  vow  to  Cupid,  has  in  the  original  Latin  a 
distinction  and  purity  of  outline  which  might  be  almost 
called  Horatian. 

THE   VOW   TO    CUPID 

No.  10 

WINTER,  now  thy  spite  is  spent, 
Frost  and  ice  and  branches  bent  ! 
Fogs  and  furious  storms  are  o'er, 
Sloth  and  torpor,  sorrow  frore, 
Pallid  wrath,  lean  discontent. 


68         WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Comes  the  graceful  band  of  May  ! 
Cloudless  shines  the  limpid  day. 
Shine  by  night  the  Pleiades  ; 
While  a  grateful  summer  breeze 
Makes  the  season  soft  and  gay. 

Golden  Love  !   shine  forth  to  view  ! 
Souls  of  stubborn  men  subdue  ! 
See  me  bend  !   what  is  thy  mind  ? 
Make  the  girl  thou  givest  kind, 
And  a  leaping  ram*s  thy  due  ! 

O  the  jocund  face  of  earth. 
Breathing  with  young  grassy  birth  ! 
Every  tree  with  foliage  clad. 
Singing  birds  in  greenwood  glad, 
Flowering  fields  for  lovers'  mirth  ! 


Nor  is  the  next  far  below  it  in  the  same  qualities  of 
neatness  and  artistic  brevity. 


A-MAYING 

No.  1 1 


N 


OW  the  fields  are  laughing ;  now  the  maids 
Take  their  pastime  ;  laugh  the  leafy  glades  : 
Now  the  summer  days  are  blooming. 
And    the    flowers  their  chaliced    lamps  for 
love  illuming. 


THE    RETURN   OF    SPRING  69 

Fruit-trees  blossom  ;  woods  grow  green  again  ; 
Winter's  rage  is  past :   O  ye  young  men, 

With  the  May-bloom  shake  off  sadness  ! 

Love  is  luring  you  to  join  the  maidens'  gladness. 

Let  us  then  together  sport  and  play  ; 
Cytherea  bids  the  young  be  gay ; 

Laughter  soft  and  happy  voices, 

Hope     and    love    invite    to     mirth    when    May 
rejoices. 

All  the  spring  is  in  the  lyric  next  upon  my  list. 

THE  RETURN  OF  SPRING 

No.  12 

SPRING  returns,  the  glad  new-comer, 
Bringing  pleasure,  banning  pain  : 
Meadows  bloom  with  early  summer. 

And  the  sun  shines  out  again  : 
All  sad  thoughts  and  passions  vanish ; 
Plenteous  Summer  comes  to  banish 
Winter  with  his  starveling  train. 

Hails  and  snows  and  frosts  together 

Melt  and  thaw  like  dews  away  ; 
While  the  spring  in  cloudless  weather 

Sucks  the  breast  of  jocund  May ; 
Sad's  the'man  and  born  for  sorrow 
Who  can  live  not,  dares  not  borrow 

Gladness  from  a  summer's  day. 


70        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Full  of  joy  and  jubilation. 

Drunk  with  honey  of  delight, 
Are  the  lads  whose  aspiration 

Is  the  palm  of  Cupid's  fight ! 
Youths,  we'll  keep  the  laws  of  Venus, 
And  with  joy  and  mirth  between  us 

Live  and  love  like  Paris  wight ! 

The  next  has  the  same  accent  of  gladness,  though 
it  is  tuned  to  a  somewhat  softer  and  more  meditative 
note  of  feeling. 

THE  SWEETNESS  OF  THE  SPRING 

No.  13 

VERNAL  hours  are  sweet  as  clover, 
With  love's  honey  running  over  ; 
Every  heart  on  this  earth  burning 
Finds  new  birth  with  spring's  returning. 

In  the  spring-time  blossoms  flourish. 
Fields  drink  moisture,  heaven's  dews  nourish ; 
Now  the  griefs  of  maidens,  after 
Dark  days,  turn  to  love  and  laughter. 

Whoso  love,  are  loved,  together 
Seek  their  pastime  in  spring  weather  ; 
And,  with  time  and  place  agreeing, 
Clasp,  kiss,  frolic,  far  from  seeing. 

Gradually  the  form  of  the  one  girl  whom  the  lyrist 
loves  emerges  from  this  wealth  of  description. 


THE   SUIT   TO   PHYLLIS  71 


THE   SUIT  TO   PHYLLIS 

No.  14 

HAIL  !  thou  longed-for  month  of  May, 
Dear  to  lovers  every  day  ! 
Thou  that  kindlest  hour  by  hour 
Life  in  man  and  bloom  in  bower  ! 
O  ye  crovifds  of  flowers  and  hues 
That  with  joy  the  sense  confuse, 
Hail !   and  to  our  bosom  bring 
Bliss  and  every  jocund  thing  ! 
Sweet  the  concert  of  the  birds  ; 
Lovers  listen  to  their  words  : 
For  sad  winter  hath  gone  by, 
And  a  soft  wind  blows  on  high. 

Earth  hath  donned  her  purple  vest, 
Fields  with  laughing  flowers  are  dressed, 
Shade  upon  the  wild  wood  spreads. 
Trees  lift  up  their  leafy  heads  ; 
Nature  in  her  joy  to-day 
Bids  all  living  things  be  gay  ; 
Glad  her  face  and  fair  her  grace 
Underneath  the  sun's  embrace  ! 
Venus  stirs  the  lover's  brain, 
With  life's  nectar  fills  his  vein, 
Pouring  through  his  limbs  the  heat 
Which  makes  pulse  and  passion  beat. 


72         WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

O  how  happy  was  the  birth 

When  the  loveliest  soul  on  earth 

Took  the  form  and  life  of  thee. 

Shaped  in  all  felicity  ! 

O  how  yellow  is  thy  hair  ! 

There  is  nothing  wrong,  I  swear, 

In  the  whole  of  thee  ;    thou  art 

Framed  to  fill  a  loving  heart ! 

Lo,  thy  forehead  queenly  crowned. 

And  the  eyebrows  dark  and  round. 

Curved  like  Iris  at  the  tips, 

Down  the  dark  heavens  when  she  slips  ! 

Red  as  rose  and  white  as  snow 
Are  thy  cheeks  that  pale  and  glow  ; 
'Mid  a  thousand  maidens  thou 
Hast  no  paragon,  I  vow. 
Round  thy  lips  and  red  as  be 
Apples  on  the  apple-tree  ; 
Bright  thy  teeth  as  any  star ; 
Soft  and  low  thy  speeches  are  ; 
Long  thy  hand,  and  long  thy  side. 
And  the  throat  thy  breasts  divide ; 
All  thy  form  beyond  compare 
Was  of  God's  own  art  the  care. 

Sparks  of  passion  sent  from  thee 
Set  on  fire  the  heart  of  me  ; 
Thee  beyond  all  whom  I  know 
I  must  love  for  ever  so. 
Lo,  my  heart  to  dust  will  burn 
Unless  thou  this  flame  return  ; 


MODEST   LOVE  73 

Still  the  fire  will  last,  and  I, 
Living  now,  at  length  shall  die  ! 
Therefore,  Phyllis,  hear  me  pray. 
Let  us  twain  together  play. 
Joining  lip  to  lip  and  breast 
Unto  breast  in  perfect  rest  ! 

The    lover    is    occasionally    bashful,    sighing    at     a 
distance. 


MODEST  LOVE 

No.  15 

SUMMER  sweet  is  coming  in  ; 
Now  the  pleasant  days  begin  ; 
Phoebus  rules  the  earth  at  last  ; 
For  sad  winter *s  reign  is  past. 

Wounded  with  the  love  alone 
Of  one  girl,  I  make  my  moan  : 
Grief  pursues  me  till  she  bend 
Unto  me  and  condescend. 

Take  thou  pity  on  my  plight ! 
With  my  heart  thy  heart  unite  ! 
In  my  love  thy  own  love  blending. 
Finding  thus  of  life  the  ending ! 

Occasionally  his  passion  assumes  a  romantic  tone,  as 
is  the  case  with  the  following  Serenade  to  a  girl  called 
Flos-de-spina  in  the  Latin.     Whether  that  was   her 


74         WINE,   WOMEN,    AND   SONG 

real  name,  or  was  only  used  for  poetical  purposes,  does 
not  admit  of  debate  now.  Anyhow,  Flos-de-spina, 
Fior-di-spina,  Fleur-d'epine,  and  English  Flower-o'- 
the-thorn  are  all  of  them  pretty  names  for  a  girl. 


THE    SERENADE  TO   FLOWER- 
O'-THE-THORN 

No.  1 6 

THE  blithe  young  year  is  upward  steering, 
Wild  winter  dwindles,  disappearing  ; 
The  short,  short  days  are  growing  longer. 
Rough  weather  yields  and  warmth  is  stronger. 
Since  January  dawned,  my  mind 
•    Waves  hither,  thither,  love-inclined 
For  one  whose  will  can  loose  or  bind. 

Prudent  and  very  fair  the  maiden, 

Than  rose  or  lily  more  love-laden  ; 

Stately  of  stature,  lithe  and  slender, 

There's  naught  so  exquisite  and  tender. 
The  Queen  of  France  is  not  so  dear ; 
Death  to  my  life  comes  very  near 
If  Flower-o'-the-thorn  be  not  my  cheer. 

The  Queen  of  Love  my  heart  is  killing 
With  her  gold  arrow  pain-distilling  ; 
The  God  of  Love  with  torches  burning 
Lights  pyre  on  pyre  of  ardent  yearning. 
She  is  the  girl  for  whom  I'd  die  ; 
I  want  none  dearer,  far  or  nigh, 
Though  grief  on  grief  upon  me  lie. 


THE    LOVE-LETTER   IN    SPRING     75 

I  with  her  love  am  thralled  and  taken, 

Whose  flower  doth  flower,  bud,  bloom,  and  waken  ; 

Sweet  were  the  labour,  light  the  burden, 

Could  mouth  kiss  mouth  for  wage  and  guerdon. 
No  touch  of  lips  my  wound  can  still. 
Unless  two  hearts  grow  one,  one  will, 
One  longing  !      Flower  of  flowers,  farewell  ! 

Once  at  least  we  find  him  writing  in  absence  to  hi 
mistress,  and  imploring  her  fidelity.    This  ranks  among 
the  most  delicate  in  sentiment  of  the  whole  series. 


N' 


THE  LOVE-LETTER  IN  SPRING 

No.  17 

OW  the  sun  is  streaming, 
Clear  and  pure  his  ray ; 
April's  glad  face  beaming 

On  our  earth  to-day. 
Unto  love  returneth 

Every  gentle  mind ; 
And  the  boy-god  burneth 
Jocund  hearts  to  bind. 

All  this  budding  beauty, 

Festival  array. 
Lays  on  us  the  duty 

To  be  blithe  and  gay. 
Trodden  ways  are  known,  love  ! 

And  in  this  thy  youth. 
To  retain  thy  own  love 

Were  but  faith  and  truth. 


76        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

In  faith  love  me  solely, 

Mark  the  faith  of  me, 
From  thy  whole  heart  wholly. 

From  the  soul  of  thee. 
At  this  time  of  bliss,  dear, 

I  am  far  away  ; 
Those  who  love  like  this,  dear, 

Suffer  every  day  ! 

At  one  time  he  seems  upon  the  point  of  clasping  his 
felicity. 


A   SPRING   DITTY 

No.  i8 

IN  the  spring,  ah  happy" day  ! 
Underneath  a  leafy  spray 
With  her  sister  stands  my  may. 
O  sweet  love ! 
He  who  now  is  reft  of  thee 
Poor  is  he ! 

Ah,  the  trees,  how  fair  they  flower 
Birds  are  singing  in  the  bower  ; 
Maidens  feel  of  love  the  power. 
O  sweet  love ! 

See  the  lilies,  how  they  blow  ! 

And  the  maidens  row  by  row 

Praise  the  best  of  gods  below. 

O  sweet  love  ! 


LOVE-DOUBTS  77 

If  I  held  my  sweetheart  now, 
In  the  wood  beneath  the  bough, 
I  would  kiss  her,  lip  and  brow. 

O  sweet  love  ! 

He  who  now  is  reft  of  thee, 

Poor  is  he  ! 

At  another  time  he  has  clasped   it,  but  he  trembles 
lest  it  should  escape  him. 


W 


LOVE-DOUBTS 

No.  19 
ITH  so  sweet  a  promise  given 


All  my  bosom  burneth  ; 
Hope  uplifts  my  heart  to  heaven, 

Yet  the  doubt  returneth, 
Lest  perchance  that  hope  should  be 
Crushed  and  shattered  suddenly. 

On  one  girl  my  fancy  so, 

On  one  star,  reposes ; 
Her  sweet  lips  with  honey  flow 

And  the  scent  of  roses : 
In  her  smile  I  laugh,  and  fire 
Fills  me  with  her  love's  desire. 

Love  in  measure  over-much 

Strikes  man's  soul  with  anguish  ; 

Anxious  love's  too  eager  touch 
Makes  man  fret  and  languish  : 


78         WINE,   WOMEN,   AND    SONG 

Thus  In  doubt  and  grief  I  pine  ; 
Pain  more  sure  was  none  than  mine. 

Burning  in  love's  fiery  flood, 

Lo,  my  Hfe  is  wasted  ! 
Such  the  fever  of  my  blood 

That  I  scarce  have  tasted 
Mortal  bread  and  wine,  but  sup 
Like  a  god  love's  nectar-cup. 

The  village  dance  forms   an  important  element   in 
he  pleasures  of  the  season.      Here  is  a  pretty  picture 
in  two  stanzas   of  a  linden  sheltering  some    Suabian 
meadow. 


W 


THE   Vn^LAGE   DANCE 

No.  20 

IDE  the  lime-tree  to  the  air 
Spreads  her  boughs  and  foliage  fair ; 


Thyme  beneath  is  growing 
On  the  verdant  meadow  where 
Dancers'  feet  are  going. 

Through  the  grass  a  little  spring 
Runs  with  jocund  murmuring  ; 

All  the  place  rejoices ; 
Cooling  zephyrs  breathe  and  sing 

With  their  summer  voices. 

I  have  freely  translated  a  second,  which  presents  a 
more  elaborate  picture  of  a  similar  scene. 


THE    VILLAGE    DANCE 


LOVE   AMONG   THE   MAIDENS      81 


LOVE   AMONG   THE    MAIDENS 

No.  21 

YONDER  choir  of  virgins  see 
Through  the  spring  advancing, 
Where  the  sun's  warmth,  fair  and  free, 

From  the  green  leaves  glancing, 
Weaves  a  lattice  of  light  gloom 

And  soft  sunbeams  o'er  us, 
'Neath  the  linden-trees  in  bloom, 
For  the  Cyprian  chorus. 

In  this  vale  where  blossoms  blow. 

Blooming,  summer-scented, 
'Mid  the  lilies  row  by  row, 

Spreads  a  field  flower-painted. 
Here  the  blackbirds  through  the  dale 

Each  to  each  are  singing. 
And  the  jocund  nightingale 

Her  fresh  voice  is  flinging. 

See  the  maidens  crowned  with  rose 

Sauntering  through  the  grasses  ! 
Who  could  tell  the  mirth  of  those 

Laughing,  singing  lasses  ? 
Or  with  what  a  winning  grace 

They  their  charms  discover. 
Charms  of  form  and  blushing  face, 

To  the  gazing  lover  ?  , 


82         WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Down  the  flowery  greenwood  glade 

As  I  chanced  to  wander, 
From  bright  eyes  a  serving-maid 

Shot  Love's  arrows  yonder  ; 
I  for  her,  'mid  all  the  crew 

Of  the  girls  of  Venus, 
Wait  and  yearn  until  I  view 

Love  spring  up  between  us. 


Another  lyric  of  complicated  rhyming  structure 
introduces  a  not  dissimilar  motive,  with  touches  that 
seem,  in  like  manner,  to  indicate  its  German  origin. 
It  may  be  remarked  that  the  lover's  emotion  has  here 
unusual  depth,  a  strain  of  sehnsucht ;  and  the  picture 
of  the  mother  followed  by  her  daughter  in  the  country- 
dance  suggests  the  domesticity  of  Northern  races. 


AT   THE   VILLAGE   DANCE 

No.   22 

MEADOWS  bloom,  in  Winter's  room 
Reign  the  Loves  and  Graces, 
With  their  gift  of  buds  that  lift 

Bright  and  laughing  faces  ; 
'Neath  the  ray  of  genial  May, 

Shining,  glowing,  blushing,  growing. 
They  the  joys  of  spring  are  showing 
In  their  manifold  array. 


AT   THE    VILLAGE    DANCE         83 

Song-birds  sweet  the  season  greet, 

Tune  their  merry  voices  ; 
Sound  the  ways  with  hymns  of  praise, 

Every  lane  rejoices. 
On  the  bough  in  greenwood  now 

Flowers  are  springing,  perfumes  flinging. 

While  young  men  and  maids  are  clinging 
To  the  loves  they  scarce  avow. 

O'er  the  grass  together  pass 

Bands  of  lads  love-laden  : 
Row  by  row  in  bevies  go 

Bride  and  blushing  maiden. 
See  with  glee  'neath  linden-tree, 

Where  the  dancing  girls  are  glancingj 

How  the  matron  is  advancing  ! 
At  her  side  her  daughter  sec ! 

She's  my  own,  for  whom  alone, 

If  fate  wills.  Til  tarry  ; 
Young  May-moon,  or  late  or  soon, 

'Tis  with  her  I'd  marry  ! 
Now  with  sighs  I  watch  her  rise. 

She  the  purely  loved,  the  surely 

Chosen,  who  my  heart  securely 
Turns  from  grief  to  Paradise. 

In  her  sight  with  heaven's  own  light 

Like  the  gods  I  blossom  ; 
Care  for  nought  till  she  be  brought 

Yielding  to  my  bosom. 


84        WINE,    WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Thirst  divine  my  soul  doth  pine 
To  behold  her  and  enfold  her, 
With  clasped  arms  alone  to  hold  her 

In  Love's  holy  hidden  shrine. 

But  the  theme  of  the  dance  is  worked  up  with  even 
greater  elaboration  and  a  more  studied  ingenuity  of 
rhyme  and  rhythm  in  the  following  characteristic  song. 
This  has  the  true  accent  of  what  may  be  called  the 
Musa  Vagabunduia,  and  is  one  of  the  best  lyrics  of  the 
series  : — 

INVITATION   TO   THE   DANCE 

No.  23 

CAST  aside  dull  books  and  thought; 
Sweet  is  folly,  sweet  is  play  : 
Take  the  pleasure  Spring  hath  brought 

In  youth's  opening  holiday  ! 
Right  it  is  old  age  should  ponder 

On  grave  matters  fraught  with  care  ; 
Tender  youth  is  free  to  wander, 
Free  to  frolic  light  as  air. 

Like  a  dream  our  prime  is  flown, 

Prisoned  in  a  study  : 
Sport  and  folly  are  youth's  own, 
Tender  youth  and  ruddy. 

Lo,  the  Spring  of  life  slips  by. 

Frozen  Winter  comes  apace  ; 
Strength  is  'minished  silently. 

Care  writes  wrinkles  on  our  face : 


INVITATION   TO   THE    DANCE      85 

Blood  dries  up  and  courage  fails  us, 
Pleasures  dwindle,  joys  decrease, 
Till  old  age  at  length  assails  us 
With  his  troop  of  illnesses. 

Like  a  dream  our  prime  is  flown, 

Prisoned  in  a  study  ; 
Sport  and  folly  are  youth's  own. 
Tender  youth  and  ruddy. 


Live  we  like  the  gods  above ; 

This  is  wisdom,  this  is  truth  : 
Chase  the  joys  of  tender  love 
In  the  leisure  of  our  youth  ! 
Keep  the  vows  we  swore  together, 

Lads,  obey  that  ordinance ; 
Seek  the  fields  in  sunny  weather. 
Where  the  laughing  maidens  dance. 

Like  a  dream  our  prime  is  flown. 

Prisoned  in  a  study ; 
Sport  and  folly  are  youth's  own, 
Tender  youth  and  ruddy. 

There  the  lad  who  lists  may  see 

Which  among  the  maids  is  kind  : 
There  young  limbs  deliciously 

Flashing  through  the  dances  wind  : 
While  the  girls  their  arms  are  raising. 

Moving,  winding  o'er  the  lea, 
Still  I  stand  and  gaze,  and  gazing 

They  have  stolen  the  soul  of  me  ! 


86        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Like  a  dream  our  prime  is  flown, 

Prisoned  in  a  study  ; 
Sport  and  folly  are  youth's  own, 

Tender  youth  and  ruddy. 


XV 


J 


A  separate  Section  can  be  devoted  to  songs  in  the 
manner  of  the  early  French  pastoral.  These  were 
fashionable  at  a  remote  period  in  all  parts  of  Europe ; 
and  I  have  already  had  occasion,  in  another  piece  of 
literary  history,  to  call  attention  to  the  Italian  madrigals 
of  the  fourteenth  century  composed  in  this  species.  ^ 
Their  point  is  mainly  this :  A  man  of  birth  and  edu- 
cation, generally  a  dweller  in  the  town,  goes  abroad 
into  the  fields,  lured  by  fair  spring  weather,  and  makes 
love  among  trees  to  a  country  wench. 

The  Vagi  turn  the  pastoral  to  their  own  purpose, 
and  always  represent  the  greenwood  lover  as  a  ckr'tcus. 
One  of  these  rural  pieces  has  a  pretty  opening  stanza  : — 

"When  the  sweet  Spring  was  ascending. 
Not  yet  May,  at  April's  ending, 
While  the  sun  was  heavenward  wending, 
Stood  a  girl  of  grace  transcending 
Underneath  the  green  bough,  sending 
Songs  aloft  with  pipings." 

Another  gives  a  slightly  comic  turn  to  the  chief 
incident. 

^   See  Renaissance  in  Italy ^  vol.  iv.  p.   156. 


THE   MULBERRY-GATHERER        87 

y 

A  PASTORAL 

No.  24 

THERE  went  out  in  the  dawning  light 
A  little  rustic  maiden ; 
Her  flock  so  white,  her  crook  so  slight, 
With  fleecy  new  wool  laden. 

Small  is  the  flock,  and  there  you'll  see 

The  she-ass  and  the  wether  ; 
This  goat's  a  he,  and  that's  a  she, 

The  bull-calf  and  the  heifer. 

She  looked  upon  the  green  sward,  where 

A  student  lay  at  leisure  : 
"  What  do  you  there,  young  sir,  so  fair  ?  " 

"  Come,  play  with  me,  my  treasure  !  " 


A  third  seems  to  have  been  written  in  the  South, 
perhaps  upon  the  shores  of  one  of  the  Italian  lakes — 
Como  or  Garda. 


THE   MULBERRY-GATHERER 

No.  25 

IN  the  summer's  burning  heat. 
When  the  flowers  were  blooming  sweet, 
I  had  chosen,  as  'twas  meet, 
'Neath  an  olive  bough  my  seat ; 
Languid  with  the  glowing  day. 
Lazy,  careless,  apt  for  play. 


88        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Stood  the  tree  in  fields  where  grew 
Painted  flowers  of  every  hue. 
Grass  that  flourished  with  the  dew, 
Fresh  with  shade  where  breezes  blew ; 
Plato,  with  his  style  so  rare, 
Could  not  paint  a  spot  more  fair. 

Runs  a  babbling  brook  hard  by, 
Chants  the  nightingale  on  high  ; 
Water-nymphs  with  song  reply. 
"  Sure,  'tis  Paradise,"  I  cry  ; 
For  I  know  not  any  place 
Of  a  sweeter,  fresher  grace. 

While  I  take  my  solace  here. 
And  in  solace  find  good  cheer. 
Shade  from  summer,  coolness  dear, 
Comes  a  shepherd  maiden  near — 
Fairer,  sure,  there  breathes  not  now — 
Plucking  mulberries  from  the  bough. 

Seeing  her,  I  loved  her  there  : 
Venus  did  the  trick,  I'll  swear ! 
"  Come,  I  am  no  thief,  to  scare, 
Rob,  or  murder  unaware  ; 
I  and  all  I  have  are  thine. 
Thou  than  Flora  more  divine !  " 

But  the  girl  made  answer  then  ; 
"  Never  played  I  yet  with  men ; 
Cruel  to  me  are  my  kin  : 
My  old  mother  scolds  me  when 
In  some  little  thing  I  stray : — 
Hold,  I  prithee,  sir,  to-day  !  " 


THE   WOOING  89 

A  fourth,  consisting  of  a  short  conventional  intro- 
duction in  praise  of  Spring,  followed  by  a  dialogue 
between  a  young  man  and  a  girl,  in  which  the  metre 
changes  for  the  last  two  stanzas,  may  be  classed  among 
the  pastorals,  although  it  is  a  somewhat  irregular 
example  of  the  species. 


THE   WOOING 

No.  26 

ALL  the  woods  are  now  in  flower, 
Song-birds  sing  in  field  and  bower, 
Orchards  their  white  blossoms  shower  : 
Lads,  make  merry  in  Love's  hour ! 

Sordid  grief  hath  flown  away, 
Fervid  Love  is  here  to-day  ; 
He  will  tame  without  delay 
Those  who  love  not  while  they  may. 

He.  '*  Fairest  maiden,  list  to  me  ; 
Do  not  thus  disdainful  be ; 
Scorn  and  anger  disagree 
With  thy  youth,  and  injure  thee. 

I  am  weaker  than  thou  art ; 
Mighty  Love  hath  pierced  my  heart  ; 
Scarce  can  I  endure  his  dart : 
Lest  I  die,  heal,  heal  my  smart !  " 

She.  "  Why  d'  you  coax  me,  suitor  blind  ? 
What  you  seek  you  will  not  find ; 


90        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

I'm  too  young  for  love  to  bind  ; 
Such  vain  trifles  vex  my  mind. 

Is't  your  will  with  me  to  toy  ? 
I'll  not  mate  with  man  or  boy : 
Like  the  Phoenix,  to  enjoy 
Single  life  shall  be  my  joy." 

He»  "  Yet  Love  is  tyrannous, 
Harsh,  fierce,  imperious ! 
He  who  man's  heart  can  thus 
Shatter,  may  make  to  bow 
Maidens  as  stern  as  thou  !  " 

She.  "  Now  by  your  words  I'm  'ware 
What  you  wish,  what  you  are  ; 
You  know  love  well,  I  swear  1 

So  I'll  be  loved  by  you  ; 

Now  I'm  on  fire  too  !  " 


XVI 

Some  semi-descriptive  pieces,  which  connect  the 
songs  of  Spring  with  lyrics  of  a  more  purely  personal 
emotion,  can  boast  of  rare  beauty  in  the  original. 

The  most  striking  of  these,  upon  the  theme  of 
Sleep  and  Love,  I  have  tried  to  render  in  trochaic 
verse,  feeling  it  impossible,  without  knowledge  of  the 
medieval  melody,  to  reproduce  its  complicated  and 
now  only  half-intelligible  rhythms. 


SLEEP    AND    LOVE 


DESCANT  UPON  SLEEP  AND  LOVE     93 


A  DESCANT   UPON  SLEEP  AND   LOVE 

No.  27 

WHEN  the  lamp  of  Cynthia  late 
Rises  in  her  silver  state, 
Through  her  brother's  roseate  light, 
Blushing  on  the  brows  of  night ; 
Then  the  pure  ethereal  air 
Breathes  with  zephyr  blowing  fair  ; 
Clouds  and  vapours  disappear. 
As  with  chords  of  lute  or  lyre. 
Soothed  the  spirits  now  respire, 
And  the  heart  revives  again 
Which  once  more  for  love  is  fain. 
But  the  orient  evening  star 
Sheds  with  influence  kindlier  far 
Dews  of  sweet  sleep  on  the  eye 
Of  o'er-tired  mortality. 

Oh,  how  blessed  to  take  and  keep 
Is  the  antidote  of  sleep  ! 
Sleep  that  lulls  the  storms  of  care 
And  of  sorrow  unaware. 
Creeping  through  the  closed  doors 
Of  the  eyes,  and  through  the  pores 
Breathing  bliss  so  pure  and  rare 
That  with  love  it  may  compare. 

Then  the  god  of  dreams  doth  bring 
To  the  mind  some  restful  thing, 


94        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Breezes  soft  that  rippling  blow 
O'er  ripe  cornfields  row  by  row, 
Murmuring  rivers  round  whose  brim 
Silvery  sands  the  swallows  skim, 
Or  the  drowsy  circling  sound 
Of  old  mill-wheels  going  round. 
Which  with  music  steal  the  mind 
And  the  eyes  in  slumber  bind. 

When  the  deeds  of  love  are  done 
Which  bland  Venus  had  begun, 
Languor  steals  with  pleasant  strain 
Through  the  chambers  of  the  brain, 
Eyes  'neath  eyelids  gently  tired 
Swim  and  seek  the  rest  desired. 
How  deliciously  at  last 
Into  slumber  love  hath  passed ! 
But  how  sweeter  yet  the  way 
Which  leads  love  again  to  play  ! 

From  the  soothed  limbs  upward  spread 
Glides  a  mist  divinely  shed. 
Which  invades  the  heart  and  head : 
Drowsily  it  veils  the  eyes, 
Bending  toward  sleep's  paradise. 
And  with  curling  vapour  round 
Fills  the  lids,  the  senses  swound, 
Till  the  visual  ray  is  bound 
By  those  ministers  which  make 
Life  renewed  in  man  awake. 

Underneath  the  leafy  shade 
Of  a  tree  in  quiet  laid. 


DESCANT  UPON  SLEEP  AND  LOVE     95 

While  the  nightingale  complains 
Singing  of  her  ancient  pains, 
Sweet  it  is  still  hours  to  pass, 
But  far  sweeter  on  the  grass 
With  a  buxom  maid  to  play- 
All  a  summer's  holiday. 
When  the  scent  of  herb  and  flower 
Breathes  upon  the  silent  hour, 
When  the  rose  with  leaf  and  bloom 
Spreads  a  couch  of  pure  perfume, 
Then  the  grateful  boon  of  sleep 
Falls  with  satisfaction  deep. 
Showering  dews  our  eyes  above. 
Tired  with  honeyed  strife  of  love. 

In  how  many  moods  the  mind 
Of  poor  lovers,  weak  and  blind. 
Wavers  like  the  wavering  wind ! 
As  a  ship  in  darkness  lost. 
Without  anchor  tempest-tossed. 
So  with  hope  and  fear  imbued 
It  roams  in  great  incertitude 
Love's  tempestuous  ocean-flood. 

A  portion  of  this  descant  finds  an  echo  in  another 
lyric  of  the  Carmina  Bur  ana  : — 

"With  young  leaves  the  wood  is  new; 

Now  the  nightingale  is  singing  ; 
And  field-flowers  of  every  hue 

On  the  sward  their  bloom  are  flinging. 
Sweet  it  is  to  brush  the  dew 

From  wild  lawns  and  woody  places ! 


96        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Sweeter  yet  to  wreathe  the  rose 

With  the  lily's  virgin  graces  ; 
But  the  sweetest  sweet  man  knows, 

Is  to  woo  a  girl's  embraces." 

The  most  highly  wrought  of  descriptive  poems  in 
this  species  is  the  Dispute  of  Flora  and  Phyllis,  which 
occurs  both  in  the  Carmina  Burana  and  in  the  English 
MSS.  edited  by  Wright.  The  motive  of  the  com- 
position is  as  follows  : — Two  girls  wake  in  the  early 
morning,  and  go  out  to  walk  together  through  the  fields. 
Each  of  them  is  in  love  ;  but  Phyllis  loves  a  soldier, 
Flora  loves  a  scholar.  They  interchange  confidences, 
the  one  contending  with  the  other  for  the  superiority 
of  her  own  sweetheart. 

Having  said  so  much,  I  will  present  the  first  part  of 
the  poem  in  the  English  version  I  have  made. 


FLORA   AND   PHYLLIS 

Part   I 

No.  28 

IN  the  spring-time,  when  the  skies 
Cast  off  winter's  mourning. 
And  bright  flowers  of  every  hue 

Earth's  lap  are  adorning. 
At  the  hour  when  Lucifer 

Gives  the  stars  their'warning, 
Phyllis  woke,  and  Flora  too, 
In  the  early  morning. 


FLORA  AND   PHYLLIS  97 

Both  the  girls  were  fain  to  go 

Forth  in  sunny  weather, 
For  love-laden  bosoms  throw 

Sleep  off  like  a  feather  ; 
Then  with  measured  steps  and  slow 

To  the  fields  together 
Went  they,  seeking  pastime  new 

'Mid  the  flowers  and  heather. 

Both  were  virgins,  both,  I  ween, 

Were  by  birth  princesses  ; 
Phyllis  let  her  locks  flow  free. 

Flora  trained  her  tresses. 
Not  like  girls  they  went,  but  like 

Heavenly  holinesses  ; 
And  their  faces  shone  like  dawn 

'Neath  the  day's  caresses. 

Equal  beauty,  equal  birth. 

These  fair  maidens  mated  ; 
Youthful  were  the  years  of  both, 

And  their  minds  elated  ; 
Yet  they  were  a  pair  unpaired, 

Mates  by  strife  unmated ; 
For  one  loved  a  clerk,  and  one 

For  a  knight  was  fated. 

Naught  there  was  of  difference 

'Twixt  them  to  the  seeing. 
All  alike,  within  without. 

Seemed  in  them  agreeing  ; 

H 


98        WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

With  one  garb,  one  cast  of  mind. 

And  one  mode  of  being, 
Only  that  they  could  not  love 

Save  with  disagreeing. 

In  the  tree-tops  overhead 

A  spring  breeze  was  blowing, 
And  the  meadow  lawns  around 

With  green  grass  were  growing  ; 
Through  the  grass  a  rivulet 

From  the  hill  was  flowing, 
Lively,  with  a  pleasant  sound 

Garrulously  going. 

That  the  girls  might  suffer  less 

From  the  noon  resplendent. 
Near  the  stream  a  spreading  pine 

Rose  with  stem  ascendant ; 
Crowned  with  boughs  and  leaves  aloft, 

0*er  the  fields  impendent ; 
From  all  heat  on  every  hand 

Airily  defendent. 

On  the  sward  the  maidens  sat, 

Naught  that  seat  surpasses  ; 
Phyllis  near  the  rivulet. 

Flora  'mid  the  grasses ; 
Each  into  the  chamber  sweet 

Of  her  own  soul  passes, 
Love  divides  their  thoughts,  and  wounds 

With  his  shafts  the  lasses. 


FLORA   AND   PHYLLIS  99 

Love  within  the  breast  of  each, 

Hidden,  unsuspected, 
Lurks  and  draws  forth  sighs  of  grief 

From  their  hearts  dejected  : 
Soon  their  ruddy  cheeks  grow  pale. 

Conscious,  love-afFected ; 
Yet  their  passion  tells  no  tale, 

By  soft  shame  protected. 

PhyUis  now  doth  overhear 

Flora  softly  sighing  : 
Flora  with  like  luck  detects 

Sigh  to  sigh  replying. 
Thus  the  girls  exchange  the  game, 

Each  with  other  vying  ; 
Till  the  truth  leaps  out  at  length, 

Plain  beyond  denying. 

Long  this  interchange  did  last 

Of  mute  conversation ; 
All  of  love-sighs  fond  and  fast 

Was  that  dissertation. 
Love  was  in  their  minds,  and  Love 

Made  their  lips  his  station  ; 
Phyllis  then,  while  Flora  smiled, 

Opened  her  oration. 

"  Soldier  brave,  my  love  !  "  she  said, 

"  Where  is  now  my  Paris  ? 
Fights  he  in  the  field,  or  where 

In  the  wide  world  tarries  ? 


lOo       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Oh,  the  soldier's  life,  I  swear. 

All  life's  glory  carries  ; 
Only  valour  clothed  in  arms 

With  Dame  Venus  marries  !  " 

Phyllis  thus  opens  the  question  whether  a  soldier  or 
a  scholar  be  the  fitter  for  love.  Flora  responds,  and 
for  some  time  they  conduct  the  dispute  in  true  scholastic 
fashion.  Being  unable  to  settle  it  between  themselves, 
they  resolve  to  seek  out  Love  himself,  and  to  refer  the 
matter  to  his  judgment.  One  girl  mounts  a  mule,  the 
other  a  horse  ;  and  these  are  no  ordinary  animals,  for 
Neptune  reared  one  beast  as  a  present  to  Venus,  Vulcan 
forged  the  metal-work  of  bit  and  saddle,  Minerva 
embroidered  the  trappings,  and  so  forth.  After  a  short 
journey  they  reach  the  Garden  of  Love,  which  is 
described  with  a  truly  luxuriant  wealth  of  imagery. 
It  resembles  some  of  the  earlier  Renaissance  pictures, 
especially  one  of  great  excellence  by  a  German  artist 
which  I  once  saw  in  a  dealer's  shop  at  Venice,  and 
which  ought  now  to  grace  a  public  gallery. 


FLORA   AND    PHYLLIS 

Part  III 

No.  29 

ON  their  steeds  the  ladies  ride, 
Two  fair  girls  and  slender  ; 
Modest  are  their  eyes  and  mild, 
And  their  cheeks  are  tender. 


--'  "'.»,  "i   ',   !    ' 


/   *  « 


FLORA   AND   PHYLLIS  loi 

Thus  young  lilies  break  the  sheath, 

Budding  roses  render 
Blushes,  and  twinned  pairs  of  stars 

Climb  the  heavens  with  splendour. 

Toward  Love's  Paradise  they  fare. 

Such,  I  ween,  their  will  is ; 
While  the  strife  between  the  pair 

Turns  their  cheeks  to  lilies  ; 
Phyllis  Flora  flouts,  and  fair 

Flora  flouteth  Phyllis  ; 
Flora's  hand  a  hawk  doth  bear, 

And  a  goshawk  Phyllis. 

After  a  short  space  they  came 

Where  a  grove  was  growing  ; 
At  the  entrance  of  the  same 

Rills  with  murmur  flowing  ; 
There  the  wind  with  myrrh  and  spice 

Redolent  was  blowing. 
Sounds  of  timbrel,  harp,  and  lyre 

Through  the  branches  going. 

All  the  music  man  could  make 

There  they  heard  in  plenty  ; 
Timbrel,  psaltery,  lyre,  and  lute, 

Harp  and  viol  dainty  ; 
Voices  that  in  part-song  meet 

Choiring  forte,  lente ; 
Sounds  the  diatesseron. 

Sounds  the  diapente. 


t  <      c     c     '  r     ■       ( 
r         *   r      <         f      t        r 


I02       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

All  the  tongues  of  all  the  birds 

With  full  cry  were  singing ; 
There  the  blackbird's  melody 

Sweet  and  true  was  ringing  ; 
Wood-dove,  lark,  and  thrush  on  high 

Jocund  anthems  flinging, 
With  the  nightingale,  who  still 

To  her  grief  was  clinging. 

When  the  girls  drew  nigh  the  grove. 

Some  fear  came  upon  them  ; 
Further  as  they  fared,  the  charm 

Of  the  pleasance  won  them  ; 
All  the  birds  so  sweetly  sang 

That  a  spell  was  on  them. 
And  their  bosoms  warmed  with  love 

At  the  welcome  shown  them. 

Man  would  be  immortal  if 

He  could  there  be  dwelling : 
Every  branch  on  every  tree 

With  ripe  fruit  is  swelling ; 
All  the  ways  with  nard  and  myrrh 

And  with  spice  are  smelling  : 
How  divine  the  Master  is 

All  the  house  is  telling. 

Blithesome  bands  arrest  their  gaze, 
Youths  and  maidens  dancing ; 

Bodies  beauteous  as  the  stars, 

Eyes  with  heaven's  light  glancing  ; 


FLORA   AND   PHYLLIS  103 

And  the  bosoms  of  the  girls. 

At  the  sight  entrancing, 
Leap  to  view  such  marvels  new, 

Joy  with  joy  enhancing  ! 

They  their  horses  check,  and  light, 

Moved  with  sudden  pleasure  ; 
Half  forget  what  brought  them  here, 

Thralled  by  love  and  leisure ; 
Till  once  more  the  nightingale 
'     Tuned  her  thrilling  measure  ; 
At  that  cry  each  girl  again 

Hugs  her  hidden  treasure. 

Round  the  middle  of  the  grove 

Was  a  place  enchanted. 
Which  the  god  for  his  own  rites 

Specially  had  planted ; 
Fauns  and  nymphs  and  satyrs  here 

Flowery  alleys  haunted. 
And  before  the  face  of  Love 

Played  and  leaped  and  chaunted. 

In  their  hands  they  carry  thyme. 

Crowns  of  fragrant  roses  ; 
Bacchus  leads  the  choir  divine 

And  the  dance  composes  ; 
Nymphs  and  fauns  with  feet  in  tune 

Interchange  their  posies ; 
But  Silenus  trips  and  reels 

When  the  chorus  closes. 


I04       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

On  an  ass  the  elder  borne 

All  the  mad  crew  guideth  ; 
Mirth  and  laughter  at  the  view 

Through  Love's  glad  heart  glideth. 
"  lo  !  "  shouts  the  eld  ;  that  sound 

In  his  throat  subsideth, 
For  his  voice  in  wine  is  drowned, 

And  his  old  age  chideth. 

'Mid  these  pleasant  sights  appears 

Love,  the  young  joy-giver  ; 
Bright  as  stars  his  eyes,  and  wings 

On  his  shoulders  shiver ; 
In  his  left  hand  is  the  bow, 

At  his  side  the  quiver  ; 
From  his  state  the  world  may  know 

He  is  lord  for  ever. 

Leans  the  boy  upon  a  staff 

Intertwined  with  flowers, 
Scent  of  nectar  from  his  hair 

Breathes  around  the  bowers  ; 
Hand  in  hand  before  him  kneel 

Three  celestial  Hours, 
Graces  who  Love's  goblet  fill 

From  immortal  showers. 

It  would  surely  be  superfluous  to  point  out  the  fluent 
elegance  of  this  poem,  or  to  dwell  farther  upon  the 
astonishing  fact  that  anything  so  purely  Renaissance  in 
tone  should  have  been  produced  in  the  twelfth  centui'y. 

Cupid,  as  was  natural,  settles  the  dispute  of  the  two 


LOVE   POEMS  105 

girls  by  deciding  that  scholars  are  more  suitable  for  love 
than  soldiers. 

This  would  be  the  place  to  introduce  another  long 
descriptive  poem,  if  the  nature  of  its  theme  rendered  it 
fit  for  translation.  It  relates  the  visit  of  a  student  to 
what  he  calls  the  Templum  Veneris ;  in  other  words,  to 
the  house  of  a  courtesan.  Her  attendants  are  sirens  ; 
and  the  whole  poem,  dealing  with  a  vulgar  incident,  is 
conducted  in  this  mock-heroic  strain.^ 


XVII 

We  pass  now  to  love-poems  of  a  more  purely  personal 

kind.     One  of  these,  which  is  too  long  for  translation 

and  in  some  respects  ill-suited  to  a  modern  taste,  forms 

the  proper  transition  from  the  descriptive  to  the  lyrical 

section.     It  starts  with  phrases  culled  from  hymns  to 

the  Virgin  : — 

"  Si  Unguis  angelicis 
Loquar  et  humanis." 

"Ave  formosissima, 
Gemma  pretiosa ; 
Ave  decus  virginum, 
Virgo  gloriosa  !  " 

These  waifs  and  strays  of  religious  diction  are 
curiously  blent  with  romantic  and  classical  allusions. 
The  girl  is  addressed  in  the  same  breath  as — 

"  Blanziflor  et  Helena, 
Venus  generosa." 

Toward  the  close  of  the  poem,  the  lover,  who  at 

^  Carm'tna  Btirana,  p.    1 3 8. 


io6      WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

length   has  reached  the  object  of  his  heart's    desire, 
breaks  into  this  paean  of  victorious  passion : — 

"What  more?     Around  the  maiden's  neck 

My  arms  I  flung  with  yearning ; 
Upon  her  lips  I  gave  and  took 

A  thousand  kisses  burning  : 
Again  and  yet  again  I  cried, 

With  whispered  vows  and  sighing, 
This,  this  alone,  sure,  sure  it  was 

For  which  my  heart  was  dying  1 

Who  is  the  man  that  does  not  know 

The  sweets  that  followed  after? 
My  former  pains,  my  sobs  and  woe. 

Were  changed  for  love  and  laughter  : 
The  joys  of  Paradise  were  ours 

In  overflowing  measure  ; 
We  tasted  every  shape  of  bliss 

And  every  form  of  pleasure." 

The  next  piece  which  I  shall  quote  differs  in  some 
important  respects  from  the  general  style  adopted  by 
the  Goliardi  in  their  love-poetry.  It  is  written  in 
rhyming  or  leonine  hexameters,  and  is  remarkable  for 
its  quaint  play  on  names,  conceived  and  executed  in  a 
truly  medieval  taste. 


FLOS    FLORAE 

No.  30 

TAKE  thou  this  rose,  O  Rose!   the  loves  in  the 
rose  repose : 
I  with  love  of  the  rose  am  caught  at  the  winter's  close  : 


A   BIRD'S   SONG   OF    LOVE        107 

Take  thou  this  flower,  my  flower,  and  cherish  it  in 

thy  bower  : 
Thou  in  thy  beauty's  power  shalt  lovelier  blow  each 

hour  : 
Gaze  at  the  rose,  and  smile,  my  rose,  in  mine  eyes  the 

while : 
To  thee  the  roses  belong,  thy  voice  is  the  nightingale's 

song : 
Give  thou  the  rose  a  kiss,  it  blushes  like  thy  mouth's 

bliss : 
Flowers  in  a  picture  seem  not  flowers,  but  flowers  in  a 

dream : 
Who  paints  the  rose's  bloom,  paints   not   the    rose's 

perfume. 

In  complete  contrast  to  this  conceited  and  euphuistic 
style  of  composition  stands  a  slight  snatch  of  rustic 
melody,  consisting  of  little  but  reiteration  and  refrain. 


A   BIRD'S    SONG   OF   LOVE 

No.  31 


C 


OME  to  me,  O  come ! 
Let  me  not  die,  but  come  ! 
Hyria  hysria  nazaza 
Trillirivos. 


Fair  is  thy  face,  O  fair  ! 
Fair  thine  eyes,  O  how  fair ! 

Hyria  hysria  nazaza 
Trillirivos. 


io8       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Fair  is  thy  flowing  hair  ! 
O  fair,  O  fair,  how  fair  ! 

Hyria  hysria  nazaza 
Trillirivos. 

Redder  than  rose  art  thou. 
Whiter  than  Hly  thou  ! 

Hyria  hysria  nazaza 
Trillirivos. 

Fairer  than  all,  I  vow. 
Ever  my  pride  art  thou  ! 

Hyria  hysria  nazaza 
Trillirivos. 


The  following  displays  an  almost  classical  intensity 
of  voluptuous  passion,  and  belongs  in  all  probability  to  a 
period  later  than  the  Carmina  Burana.  I  have  ventured, 
in  translating  it,  to  borrow  the  structure  of  a  song  which 
occurs  in  Fletcher's  Rollo  (act  v.  scene  2),  the  first 
stanza  of  which  is  also  found  in  Shakespeare's  Measure 
for  Measure  (act  iv.  scene  i),  and  to  insert  one  or  two 
phrases  from  Fletcher's  version.  Whether  the  composer 
of  that  song  had  ever  met  with  the  Latin  lyric  to  Lydia 
can  scarcely  form  the  subject  of  critical  conjecture.  Yet 
there  is  a  faint  evanescent  resemblance  between  the  two 
poems. 


TO    LYDIA  109 


TO    LYDIA 

No.  32 

LYDIA  bright,  thou  girl  more  white 
Than  the  milk  of  morning  new, 
Or  young  lilies  in  the  light ! 

Matched  with  thy  rose-whiteness,  hue 
Of  red  rose  or  white  rose  pales, 
And  the  polished  ivory  fails, 

Ivory  fails. 

Spread,  O  spread,  my  girl,  thy  hair, 
Amber-hued  and  heavenly  bright. 

As  line  gold  or  golden  air ! 

Show,  O  show  thy  throat  so  white. 

Throat  and  neck  that  marble  fine 

Over  thy  white  breasts  incline. 

Breasts  incline. 

Lift,  O  lift  thine  eyes  that  are 
Underneath  those  eyelids  dark. 

Lustrous  as  the  evening  star 

'Neath  the  dark  heaven's  purple  arc  ! 

Bare,  O  bare  thy  cheeks  of  rose. 

Dyed  with  Tyrian  red  that  glows. 

Red  that  glows. 

Give,  O  give  those  lips  of  love 
That  the  coral  boughs  eclipse  ; 

Give  sweet  kisses,  dove  by  dove, 
Soft  descending  on  my  lips. 


no      WINE,   WOMEN,   AND    SONG 

See  my  soul  how  forth  she  flies  ! 
'Neath  each  kiss  my  pierced  heart  dies, 

Pierced  heart  dies. 

Wherefore  dost  thou  draw  my  life, 

Drain  my  heart's  blood  with  thy  kiss  ? 

Scarce  can  I  endure  the  strife 
Of  this  ecstasy  of  bliss  ! 

Set,  O  set  my  poor  heart  free. 

Bound  in  icy  chains  by  thee, 

Chains  by  thee. 

Hide,  O  hide  those  hills  of  snow. 
Twinned  upon  thy  breast  that  rise. 

Where  the  virgin  fountains  flow 
With  fresh  milk  of  Paradise  ! 

Thy  bare  bosom  breathes  of  myrrh. 

From  thy  whole  self  pleasures  stir. 

Pleasures  stir. 

Hide,  O  hide  those  paps  that  tire 

Sense  and  spirit  with  excess 
Of  snow-whiteness  and  desire 

Of  thy  breast's  deliciousness  ! 
See'st  thou,  cruel,  how  I  swoon  ? 
Leav'st  thou  me  half  lost  so  soon  ? 

Lost  so  soon  ? 

In  rendering  this  lyric  to  Lydia,  I  have  restored  the 
fifth  stanza,  only  one  line  of  which, 

"Quid  mihi  sugis  vivum  sanguinem," 

remains  in  the  original.      This  I  did  because  it  seemed 


A   POEM   OF   PRIVACY  iii 

necessary  to  effect  the  transition  from  the  stanzas  be- 
ginning Pandcy  puelkj  pander  to  those  beginning  Conde 
papillasy  conde. 

Among  these  more  direct  outpourings  of  personal 
passion,  place  may  be  found  for  a  delicate  little  Poem 
of  Privacy,  which  forms  part  of  the  Carmina  Burana. 
Unfortunately,  the  text  of  this  slight  piece  is  very 
defective  in  the  MS.,  and  has  had  to  be  conjecturally 
restored  in  several  places. 


W 


A  POEM   OF    PRIVACY 

No.  33 
HEN  a  young  man,  passion-laden. 


In  a  chamber  meets  a  maiden, 

Then  felicitous  communion, 
By  love's  strain  between  the  twain. 

Grows  from  forth  their  union  ; 
For  the  game,  it  hath  no  name. 
Of  lips,  arms,  and  hidden  charms. 

Nor  can  I  here  forbear  from  inserting  another  Poem 
of  Privacy,  bolder  in  its  openness  of  speech,  more 
glowing  in  its  warmth  of  colouring.  If  excuse  should 
be  pleaded  for  the  translation  and  reproduction  of  this 
distinctly  Pagan  ditty,  it  must  be  found  in  the  singularity 
of  its  motive,  which  is  as  unmedieval  as  could  be  desired 
by  the  bitterest  detractor  of  medieval  sentiment.  We 
seem,  while  reading  it,  to  have  before  our  eyes  the 
Venetian  picture  of  a  Venus,  while  the  almost  prosaic 


112       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

particularity  of  description  illustrates  what  I  have  said 
above  about  the  detailed  realism  of  the  Goliardic 
style. 


FLORA 

No.  34 

RUDELY  blows  the  winter  blast, 
Withered  leaves  are  falling  fast, 
Cold  hath  hushed  the  birds  at  last. 

While  the  heavens  were  warm  and  glowing. 

Nature's  offspring  loved  in  May  ; 
But  man's  heart  no  debt  is  owing 
To  such  change  of  month  or  day 
As  the  dumb  brute-beasts  obey. 
Oh,  the  joys  of  this  possessing  ! 
How  unspeakable  the  blessing 

That  my  Flora  yields  to-day  ! 

Labour  long  I  did  not  rue. 
Ere  I  won  my  wages  due, 
And  the  prize  I  played  for  drew. 
Flora  with  her  brows  of  laughter, 

Gazing  on  me,  breathing  bliss, 
Draws  my  yearning  spirit  after. 

Sucks  my  soul  forth  in  a  kiss  : 

Where's  the  pastime  matched  with  this  ? 
Oh,  the  joys  of  this  possessing  ! 
How  unspeakable  the  blessing 

Of  my  Flora's  loveliness  ! 


FLORA  113 

Truly  mine  is  no  harsh  doom, 
While  in  this  secluded  room 
Venus  lights  for  me  the  gloom  ! 
Flora  faultless  as  a  blossom 

Bares  her  smooth  limbs  for  mine  eyes  ; 
Softly  shines  her  virgin  bosom, 

And  the  breasts  that  gently  rise 

Like  the  hills  of  Paradise. 
Oh,  the  joys  of  this  possessing  ! 
How  unspeakable  the  blessing 

When  my  Flora  is  the  prize  ! 

From  her  tender  breasts  decline, 
In  a  gradual  curving  line, 
Flanks  like  swansdown  white  and  fine. 
On  her  skin  the  touch  discerneth 

Naught  of  rough  ;   'tis  soft  as  snow  : 
'Neath  the  waist  her  belly  turneth 

Unto  fulness,  where  below 

In  Love's  garden  lilies  blow. 
Oh,  the  joys  of  this  possessing  ! 
How  unspeakable  the  blessing  ! 

Sweetest  sweets  from  Flora  flow  ! 

Ah  !   should  Jove  but  find  my  fair, 

He  would  fall  in  love,  I  swear, 

And  to  his  old  tricks  repair  : 

In  a  cloud  of  gold  descending 

As  on  Danae's  brazen  tower. 

Or  the  sturdy  bull's  back  bending. 

Or  would  veil  his  godhood's  power 

In  a  swan's  form  for  one  hour. 

I 


114       WINE,   WOMEN,  AND   SONG 

Oh,  the  joys  of  this  possessing  ! 
How  unspeakable  the  blessing ! 

How  divine  my  Flora's  flower  ! 

A  third  "  poem  of  privacy  "  may  be  employed  to 
temper  this  too  fervid  mood.  I  conceive  it  to  be 
meant  for  the  monologue  of  a  lover  in  the  presence  of 
his  sweetheart,  and  to  express  the  varying  lights  and 
shades  of  his  emotion. 


THE   LOVER'S   MONOLOGUE 

No.  35 

LOVE  rules  everything  that  is  : 
Love  doth  change  hearts  in  a  kiss ; 
Love  seeks  devious  ways  of  bliss  : 
Love  than  honey  sweeter. 
Love  than  gall  more  bitter. 
Blind  Love  hath  no  modesties. 
Love  is  lukewarm,  fiery,  cold  ; 
Love  is  timid,  overbold  ; 
Loyal,  treacherous,  manifold. 

Present  time  is  fit  for  play  : 
Let  Love  find  his  mate  to-day : 
Hark,  the  birds,  how  sweet  their  lay  ! 
Love  rules  young  men  wholly; 
Love  lures  maidens  solely. 
Woe  to  old  folk  !   sad  are  they. 
Sweetest  woman  ever  seen, 
Fairest,  dearest,  is  my  queen ; 
And  alas  !  my  chiefest  teen. 


THE    LOVER'S   MONOLOGUE      115 

Let  an  old  man,  chill  and  drear, 
Never  come  thy  bosom  near  ; 
Oft  he  sleeps  with  sorry  cheer. 
Too  cold  to  delight  thee  : 
Naught  could  less  invite  thee. 
Youth  with  youth  must  mate,  my  dear. 
Blest  the  union  I  desire  ; 
Naught  I  know  and  naught  require, 
Better  than  to  be  thy  squire. 

Love  flies  all  the  world  around  : 
Love  in  wanton  wiles  is  wound  ; 
Therefore  youth  and  maid  are  bound 
In  Love's  fetters  duly. 
She  is  joyless  truly 
Who  no  lover  yet  hath  found ! 
All  the  night  in  grief  and  smart 
She  must  languish,  wear  her  heart ; 
Bitter  is  that  woman's  part. 

Love  is  simple,  Love  is  sly  ; 
Love  is  pale,  of  ruddy  dye  : 
Love  is  all  things,  low  and  high  : 
Love  is  serviceable, 
Constant  and  unstable  : 
Love  obeys  Art's  empery. 

In  this  closed  room  Love  takes  flight. 

In  the  silence  of  the  night, 

Love  made  captive,  conquered  quite. 

The    next    is    singidarly,    quaintly    musical    in    the 
original,  but  for  various  reasons  I  have  not  been  able  to 


ii6       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

adhere  exactly  to  its  form.  I  imagine  that  it  is  the 
work  of  the  same  poet  who  composed  the  longer  piece 
which  I  shall  give  immediately  after.  Both  are 
addressed  to  Caecilia  ;  I  have  used  the  name  Phyllis 
in  my  version. 


THE   INVITATION   TO    LOVE 

No.  36 

LIST,  my  girl,  with  words  I  woo  ; 
Lay  not  wanton  hands  on  you  : 
Sit  before  you,  in  your  face 
Gazing,  ah  !   and  seeking  grace ; 
Fix  mine  eyes,  nor  let  them  rove 
From  the  mark  where  shafts  of  love 

Their  flight  wing. 
Try,  my  girl,  O  try  what  bliss 
Young  men  render  when  they  kiss ! 

Youth  is  alway  sturdy,  straight ; 
Old  age  totters  in  its  gait. 
These  delights  of  love  we  bring 
Have  the  suppleness  of  spring. 
Softness,  sweetness,  wantoning  ; 
Clasp,  my  Phyllis,  in  their  ring 
Sweeter  sweets  than  poets  sing. 

Anything  and  everything  ! 

After  daytime's  heat  from  heaven 
Dews  on  thirsty  fields  are  given ; 
After  verdant  leaf  and  stem 
Shoots  the  white  flower's  diadem  ; 


PHYLLIS  117 

After  the  white  flower's  bloom 
To  the  night  their  faint  perfume 

Lilies  fling. 
Try,  my  girl,  etc.,  da  capo. 

The  poem,  Ludo  cum  Caec'dia,  which  comes  next  in 
order,  is  one  of  the  most  perfect  specimens  of  Goliardic 
writing.  To  render  its  fluent,  languid,  and  yet  airy 
grace,  in  any  language  but  the  Latin,  is,  I  think,  im- 
possible. Who  could  have  imagined  tliat  the  subtlety, 
the  refinement,  almost  the  perversity  of  feeling  expressed 
in  it,  should  have  been  proper  to  a  student  of  the 
twelfth  century  ?  The  poem  is  spoiled  toward  its 
close  by  astrological  and  grammatical  conceits ;  and 
the  text  is  corrupt.  That  part  I  have  omitted, 
together  with  some  stanzas  which  offend  a  modern 
taste. 


PHYLLIS 

No.  37 

THINK  no  evil,  have  no  fear. 
If  I  play  with  Phyllis  ; 
I  am  but  the  guardian  dear 
Of  her  girlhood's  lilies. 
Lest  too  soon  her  bloom  should  swoon 
Like  spring's  daffodillies. 

All  I  care  for  is  to  play, 

Gaze  upon  my  treasure. 
Now  and  then  to  touch  her  hand. 

Kiss  in  modest  measure  ; 


ii8       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

But  the  fifth  act  of  love's  game, 
Dream  not  of  that  pleasure  ! 

For  to  touch  the  bloom  of  youth 
Spoils  its  frail  complexion  ; 

Let  the  young  grape  gently  grow 
Till  it  reach  perfection  ; 

Hope  within  my  heart  doth  glow 
Of  the  girl's  affection. 

Sweet  above  all  sweets  that  are 
'Tis  to  play  with  Phyllis; 

For  her  thoughts  are  white  as  snow, 
In  her  heart  no  ill  is ; 

And  the  kisses  that  she  gives 
Sweeter  are  than  lilies. 

Love  leads  after  him  the  gods 
Bound  in  pliant  traces  ; 

Harsh  and  stubborn  hearts  he  bends. 
Breaks  with  blows  of  maces  ; 

Nay,  the  unicorn  is  tamed 
By  a  girl's  embraces. 

Love  leads  after  him  the  gods, 

Jupiter  with  Juno ; 
To  his  waxen  measure  treads 

Masterful  Neptune  O ! 
Pluto  stern  to  souls  below 

Melts  to  this  one  tune  O  ! 

Whatsoe'er  the  rest  may  do. 
Let  us  then  be  playing  : 


LOVE   LONGINGS  119 

Take  the  pastime  that  is  due 

While  we're  yet  a-Maying  ; 
I  am  young  and  young  are  you ; 

'Tis  the  time  for  playing. 


Up  to  this  time,  the  happiness  of  love  returned 
and  satisfied  has  been  portrayed.  The  following  lyric 
exhibits  a  lover  pining  at  a  distance,  soothing  his  soul 
with  song,  and  indulging  in  visions  of  happiness  beyond 
his  grasp — etSwXoi?  KaAAev?  Kwc^a  ;^A.taii/d/xei/os,  as 
Meleager  phrased  it  on  a  similar  occasion. 


LOVE   LONGINGS 

No.  38 

WITH  song  I  seek  my  fate  to  cheer, 
As  doth  the  swan  when  death  draws  near ; 
Youth's  roses  from  my  cheeks  retire. 
My  heart  is  worn  with  fond  desire. 

Since  care  and   woe   increase  and  grow,    while 
light  burns  low. 

Poor  wretch  I  die  ! 
Heigho  !  I  die,  poor  wretch  I  die  ! 
Constrained  to  love,  unloved ;  such  luck  have  I ! 

If  she  could  love  me  whom  I  love, 
I  would  not  then  exchange  with  Jove ; 


I20      WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Ah !   might  I  clasp  her  once,  and  drain 
Her  lips  as  thirsty  flowers  drink  rain ! 

With  death  to  meet,  his  welcome  greet,  from 
life  retreat, 

I  were  full  fain  ! 
Heigho  !   full  fain,  I  were  full  fain, 
Could  I  such  joy,  such  wealth  of  pleasure  gain ! 

When  I  bethought  me  of  her  breast, 
Those  hills  of  snow  my  fancy  pressed  ; 
Longing  to  touch  them  with  my  hand, 
Love's  laws  I  then  did  understand. 

Rose  of  the  south,  blooms  on  her  mouth  ;  I 
felt  love's  drouth 

That  mouth  to  kiss  ! 
Heigho !   to  kiss,  that  mouth  to  kiss  ! 
Lost  in  day-dreams  and  vain  desires  of  bliss. 

The  next  is  the  indignant  repudiation  by  a  lover 
of  the  calumny  that  he  has  proved  unfaithful  to  his 
mistress.  The  strongly  marked  double  rhymes  of  the 
original  add  peculiar  vehemence  to  his  protestations ; 
while  the  abundance  of  cheap  mythological  allusions  is 
emphatically  Goliardic. 

THE    LOVER'S    VOW 

No.  39 

FALSE  the  tongue  and  foul  with  slander, 
Poisonous  treacherous  tongue  of  pander. 
Tongue  the  hangman's  knife  should  sever. 
Tongue  in  flames  to  burn  for  ever ; 


THE    LOVER'S    VOW  121 

Which  hath  called  me  a  deceiver, 
Faithless  lover,  quick  to  leave  her, 
Whom  I  love,  and  leave  her  slighted, 
For  another,  unrequited  ! 

Hear,  ye  Muses  nine  !  nay,  rather, 
Jove,  of  gods  and  men  the  father  ! 
Who  for  Danae  and  Europa 
Changed  thy  shape,  thou  bold  eloper  ! 


Hear  me,  god  !   ye  gods  all,  hear  me ! 
Such  a  sin  came  never  near  me. 
Hear,  thou  god  !  and  gods  all,  hear  ye  ! 
Thus  I  sinned  not,  as  I  fear  ye. 

I  by  Mars  vow,  by  Apollo, 

Both  of  whom  Love's  learning  follow  ; 

Yea,  by  Cupid  too,  the  terror 

Of  whose  bow  forbids  all  error  ! 

By  thy  bow  I  vow  and  quiver. 
By  the  shafts  thou  dost  deliver, 
Without  fraud,  in  honour  duly 
To  observe  my  troth-plight  truly. 

I  will  keep  the  troth  I  plighted, 
And  the  reason  shall  be  cited  : 
'Tis  that  'mid  the  girls  no  maiden 
Ever  met  I  more  love-laden. 

'Mid  the  girls  thou  art  beholden 
Like  a  pearl  in  setting  golden  ; 
Yea,  thy  shoulder,  neck,  and  bosom 
Bear  of  beauty's  self  the  blossom. 


122       WINE,   WOMEN,    AND   SONG 

Oh,  her  throat,  lips,  forehead,  nourish 

Love,  with  food  that  makes  him  flourish  ! 

And  her  curls,  I  did  adore  them — 

They  were  blonde  with  heaven's  light  o'er  them. 

Therefore,  till,  for  Nature's  scorning, 
Toil  is  rest  and  midnight  morning, 
Till  no  trees  in  woods  are  growing. 
Till  fire  turns  to  water  flowing  ; 

Till  seas  have  no  ships  to  sail  them, 
Till  the  Parthians'  arrows  fail  them, 
I,  my  girl,  will  love  thee  ever, 
Unbetrayed,  betray  thee  never  ! 

In  the  following  poem  a  lover  bids  adieu  for  ever  to 
an  unworthy  woman,  who  has  betrayed  him.  This  is 
a  remarkable  specimen  of  the  songs  written  for  a 
complicated  melody.  The  first  eight  lines  seem  set 
to  one  tune ;  in  the  next  four  that  tune  is  slightly 
accelerated,  and  a  double  rhyme  is  substituted  for  a 
single  one  in  the  tenth  and  twelfth  verses.  The  five 
concluding  lines  go  to  a  different  kind  of  melody,  and 
express  in  each  stanza  a  changed  mood  of  feeling. 

I  have  tried  in  this  instance  to  adopt  the  plaster-cast 
method  of  translation,  as  described  above,i  and  have 
even  endeavoured  to  obtain  the  dragging  effect  of  the 
first  eight  lines  of  each  strophe,  which  are  composed 
neither  of  exact  accentual  dactyls  nor  yet  of  exact 
accentual  anapaests,  but  offer  a  good  example  of  that 
laxity  of  rhythm  permitted  in  this  prosody  for  music. 

1  Page  37. 


FAREWELL    TO   THE   FAITHLESS     123 

Comparison  with  the  original  will  show  that  1  was 
not  copying  Byron's  When  ive  Tivo  Parted ;  yet  the 
resemblance  between  that  song  and  the  tone  which  my 
translation  has  naturally  assumed  from  the  Latin,  is 
certainly  noticeable.  That  Byron  could  have  seen  the 
piece  before  he  wrote  his  own  lines  in  question  is 
almost  impossible,  for  this  portion  of  the  Carmina 
Burana  had  not,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  been  edited 
before  the  year  1847.  The  coincidence  of  metrical 
form,  so  far  as  it  extends,  only  establishes  the  spon- 
taneity of  emotion  which,  in  the  case  of  the  medieval 
and  the  modern  poet,  found  a  similar  rhythm  for  the 
utterance  of  similar  feeling. 


A 


FAREWELL  TO  THE  FAITHLESS 

No.  40 

MORTAL  anguish 

How  often  woundeth  me  ; 
Grieving  I  languish, 

Weighed  down  with  misery  ; 
Hearing  the  mournful 

Tale  of  thy  fault  and  fall 
Blown  by  Fame's  scornful 
Trump  to  the  ears  of  all ! 

Envious  rumour 

Late  or  soon  will  slay  thee : 
Love  with  less  humour. 

Lest  thy  love  betray  thee. 


124      WINE,   WOMEN,   AND    SONG 

Whatever  thou  dost,  do  secretly, 
Far  from  Fame's  curiosity  ; 
Love  in  the  dark  delights  to  be. 
His  sports  are  wiles  and  witchery. 
With  laugh  of  lovers  greeting. 

Thou  wert  not  slighted. 

Stained  in  thine  honour,  when 
We  were  united, 

Lovers  unknown  to  men  ; 
But  when  thy  passion 

Grew  like  thy  bosom  cold, 
None  had  compassion. 

Then  was  thy  story  told. 

Fame,  who  rejoiceth 

New  amours  to  utter, 
Now  thy  shame  voiceth. 

Wide  her  pinions  flutter. 

The  palace  home  of  modesty 
Is  made  a  haunt  for  harlotry ; 
The  virgin  lily  you  may  see 
Defiled  by  fingers  lewd  and  free, 
With  vile  embraces  meeting. 

I  mourn  the  tender 

Flower  of  the  youth  of  thee. 
Brighter  in  splendour 

Than  evening's  star  can  be. 

Pure  were  thy  kisses. 

Dove-like  thy  smile ; 
As  the  snake  hisses 

Now  is  thy  guile. 


FAREWELL   TO   THE    FAITHLESS     125 

Lovers  who  pray  thee 

From  thy  door  are  scattered  ; 

Lovers  who  pay  thee 
In  thy  bed  are  flattered. 

Thou  bidst  them  from  thy  presence  flee 
From  whom  thou  canst  not  take  thy  fee ; 
Blind,  halt,  and  lame  thy  suitors  be ; 
Illustrious  men  with  subtlety 
And  poisonous  honey  cheating. 

I  may  add  that  a  long  soliloquy  printed  in  Carmina 
Burana,  pp.  1 1 9- 1 2 1 ,  should  be  compared  with  the 
foregoing  lyric.  It  has  a  similar  motive,  though  the 
lover  in  this  case  expresses  his  willingness  for  recon- 
ciliation. One  part  of  its  expostulation  with  the 
faithless  woman   is   beautiful   in  its   simplicity  : — 

"  Amaveram  prae  caeteris 
Te,  sed  amici  veteris 
Es  jam  oblital     Superis 
Vel  inferis 
Ream  te  criminamur." 

I  will  close  this  section  with  the  lament  written  for 
a  medieval  Gretchen  whose  fault  has  been  discovered, 
and  whose  lover  has  been  forced  to  leave  the  country. 
Its  bare  realism  contrasts  with  the  lyrical  exuberance 
of  the  preceding  specimens. 


126       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 


GRETCHEN 


No.  41 


UP  to  this  time,  well-away ! 
I  concealed  the  truth  from  day, 

Went  on  loving  skilfully. 
Now  my  fault  at  length  is  clear  : 
That  the  hour  of  need  is  near, 

From  my  shape  all  eyes  can  see. 
So  my  mother  gives  me  blows. 
So  my  father  curses  throws  ; 

They  both  treat  me  savagely. 
In  the  house  alone  I  sit, 
Dare  not  walk  about  the  street. 

Nor  at  play  in  public  be. 

If  I  walk  about  the  street. 
Every  one  I  chance  to  meet 

Scans  me  like  a  prodigy  : 
When  they  see  the  load  I  bear, 
All  the  neighbours  nudge  and  stare. 

Gaping  while  I  hasten  by  ; 
With  their  elbows  nudge,  and  so 
With  their  finger  point,  as  though 

I  were  some  monstrosity  ; 
Me  with  nods  and  winks  they  spurn, 
Judge  me  fit  in  flames  to  burn 

For  one  lapse  from  honesty. 


ADIEU   TO   THE   VALLEY         127 

Why  this  tedious  tale  prolong  ? 
Short,  I  am  become  a  song, 

In  all  mouths  a  mockery. 
By  this  am  I  done  to  death, 
Sorrow  kills  me,  chokes  my  breath, 

Ever  weep  I  bitterly. 
One  thing  makes  me  still  more  grieve, 
That  my  friend  his  home  must  leave 

For  the  same  cause  instantly  ; 
Therefore  is  my  sadness  so 
Multiplied,  weighed  down  with  woe, 

For  he  too  will  part  from  me. 

XVIII 

A  separate  section  should  be  assigned  to  poems  of 
exile.  They  are  not  very  numerous,  but  are  interest- 
ing in  connection  with  the  wandering  life  of  their 
vagrant  authors.  The  first  has  all  the  dreamy  pathos 
felt  by  a  young  German  leaving  his  beloved  home  in 
some  valley  of  the  Suabian  or  Thuringian  hills. 

ADIEU  TO  THE  VALLEY 
No.  42 

OH,  of  love  twin-brother  anguish  ! 
In  thy  pangs  I  faint  and  languish. 
Cannot  find  relief  from  thee  ! 
Nay,  no  marvel !      I  must  grieve  her, 
Wander  forth  in  exile,  leave  her. 
Who  hath  gained  the  heart  of  me  ; 


128       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Who  of  loveliness  so  rare  is 
That  for  her  sake  Trojan  Paris 
Would  have  left  his  Helene. 

Smile,  thou  valley,  sweetest,  fairest, 
Wreathed  with  roses  of  the  rarest, 

Flower  of  all  the  vales  that  be  ! 
Vale  of  vales,  all  vales  excelling, 
Sun  and  moon  thy  praise  are  telling. 

With  the  song-birds'  melody  ; 
Nightingales  thy  praise  are  singing, 
O  thou  soothing  solace-bringing 

To  the  soul's  despondency  ! 

The  second  was  probably  intended  to  be  sung  at  a 
drinking-party  by  a  student  taking  leave  of  his  com- 
panions. It  is  love  that  forces  him  to  quit  their 
society  and  to  break  with  his  studies.  The  long 
rhyming  lines,  followed  by  a  sharp  drop  at  the  close  of 
each  stanza  upon  a  short  disjointed  phrase,  seem  to 
indicate  discouragement  and  melancholy. 


THE  LOVER'S  PARTING 
No.  43 

SWEET    native    soil,  farewell  !     dear  country  of 
my  birth ! 
Fair   chamber  of  the  loves  !     glad   home   of  joy   and 
mirth ! 


THE    LOVER'S   PARTING  129 

To-morrow  or  to-day  I  leave  you,  o'er  the  earth 
To  wander  struck  with  love,  to  pine  with  rage   and 
dearth 

In  exile  ! 

Farewell,   sweet    land,  and  ye,    my   comrades    dear, 

adieu  ! 
To  whom  with  kindly  heart  I  have  been  ever  true ; 
The  studies  that  we  loved  I  may  no  more  pursue  ; 
Weep  then  for  me,  who  part  as  though  I  died  to  you. 

Love-laden  ! 

As  many  as  the  flowers  that  Hybla's  valley  cover. 
As  many  as  the  leaves  that  on  Dodona  hover, 
As  many  as  the  fish  that  sail  the  wide  seas  over. 
So  many  are  the  pangs  that  pain  a  faithful  lover, 

For  ever  ! 

With  the  new  fire  of  love  my  wounded  bosom  burns  ; 
Love  knows  not  any  ruth,  all  tender  pity  spurns  ; 
How  true  the  proverb  speaks  that  saith  to  him  that 

yearns, 
"  Where    love   is    there   is    pain ;  thy    pleasure    love 

returns 

With  anguish  !  '' 

Ah,  sorrow  !   ah,  how  sad  the  wages  of  our  bliss  ! 
In  lovers'  hearts  the  flame's  too  hot  for  happiness  ; 
For  Venus  still  doth  send  new  sighs  and  new  distress 
When  once  the  enamoured  soul  is  taken  with  excess 

Of  sweetness  ! 

K 


I30       WINE,   WOMEN,  AND   SONG 

The  third  introduces  us  to  a  little  episode  of  medie- 
val private  life  which  must  have  been  frequent  enough. 
It  consists  of  a  debate  between  a  father  and  his  son 
upon  the  question  whether  the  young  man  should  enter 
into  a  monastic  brotherhood.  The  youth  is  lying  on 
a  sickbed,  and  thinks  that  he  is  already  at  the  point  of 
death.  It  will  be  noticed  that  he  is  only  diverted 
from  his  project  by  the  mention  of  a  student  friend 
(indicated,  as  usual,  by  an  N),  whom  he  would  never 
be  able  to  see  again  if  he  assumed  the  cowl.  I  suspect, 
however,  that  the  poem  has  not  been  transmitted  to 
us  entire. 


IN  ARTICULO  MORTIS 

No.  44 


Son.    /^^H,  my  father  !   help,  I  pray  ! 
V_^ Death  is  near  my  soul  to-day  ; 
With  your  blessing  let  me  be 
Made  a  monk  right  speedily  ! 


See  the  foe  my  life  invade  ! 
Haste,  oh  haste,  to  give  me  aid  ! 
Bring  me  comfort  and  heart's  ease. 
Strengthen  me  in  this  disease  I 

Father.   Oh,  my  best-beloved  son. 

What  is  this  thou  wouldst  have  done  ? 
Weigh  it  well  in  heart  and  brain : 
Do  not  leave  me  here  in  pain. 


)c«. 


IN   ARTICULO    MORTIS  131 

Father,  this  thy  loving  care 
Makes  me  weep  full  sore,  I  swear  ; 
For  you  will  be  childless  when 
I  have  joined  those  holy  men. 

Father.   Therefore  make  a  little  stay, 
Put  it  off  till  the  third  day  ; 
It  may  be  your  danger  is 
Not  unto  the  death,  I  wis. 

Son,   Such  the  anguish  that  I  feel 

Through  my  inmost  entrails  steal. 
That  I  bide  in  doubt  lest  death 
Ere  to-morrow  end  my  breath. 

Father,  Those  strict  rules  that  monks  observe. 
Well  I  know  them  !      They  must  serve 
Heaven  by  fasting  every  day. 
And  by  keeping  watch  alway. 

Son.   Who  for  God  watch  through  the  night 
Shall  receive  a  crown  of  light ; 
Who  for  heaven's  sake  hungers,  he 
Shall  be  fed  abundantly. 

Father.   Hard  and  coarse  the  food  they  eat. 
Beans  and  pottage-herbs  their  meat ; 
After  such  a  banquet,  think. 
Water  is  their  only  drink  ! 

Son.  What's  the  good  of  feasts,  or  bright 
Cups  of  Bacchus,  when,  in  spite 
Of  all  comforts,  at  the  last 
This  poor  flesh  to  worms  is  cast  ? 


J 


132       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Father.  Well,  then,  let  thy  parent's  moan 
Move  thee  in  thy  soul,  my  son  ! 
Mourning  for  thee  made  a  monk, 
Dead-alive  in  darkness  sunk. 

Son.  They  who  father,  mother  love. 
And  their  God  neglect,  will  prove 
That  they  are  in  error  found 
When  the  judgment  trump  shall  sound. 

Father.   Logic  !   would  thou  ne'er  hadst  been 
Known  on  earth  for  mortal  teen ! 
Many  a  clerk  thou  mak'st  to  roam 
Wretched,  exiled  from  his  home. — 

Never  more  thine  eyes,  my  son, 
Shall  behold  thy  darling  one, 
Him,  that  little  clerk  so  fair, 
N.,  thy  friend  beyond  compare  ! 

Son.  Oh,  alas  !   unhappy  me  ! 
What  to  do  I  cannot  see ; 
Wandering  lost  in  exile  so. 
Without  guide  or  light  I  go  ! — 

Dry  your  tears,  my  father  dear. 
Haply  there  is  better  cheer  ; 
Now  my  mind  on  change  is  set, 
I'll  not  be  a  monk,  not  yet. 


XIX 

The  order  adopted  in  this  essay  brings  us  now  to 
drinking-songs.     Next  to  spring  and  love,  our  students 


DRINKING-SONGS  133 

set  their  affections  principally  on  the  tavern  and  the  wine- 
bowl. In  the  poems  on  the  Order  we  have  seen  how 
large  a  space  in  their  vagrant  lives  was  occupied  by  the 
tavern  and  its  jovial  company  of  topers  and  gamesters. 
It  was  there  that — 

''Some  are  gaming,  some  are  drinking, 
Some  are  Hving  without  thinking  ; 
And  of  those  who  make  the  racket, 
Some  are  stripped  of  coat  and  jacket ; 
Some  get  clothes  of  finer  feather, 
Some  are  cleaned  out  altogether ; 
No  one  there  dreads  death's  invasion, 
But  all  drink  in  emulation." 

The  song  from  which  I  have  extracted  this  stanza 
contains  a  parody  of  S.  Thomas  Aquinas'  hymn  on  the 
Eucharist.^  To  translate  it  seemed  to  me  impossible; 
but  I  will  cite  the  following  stanza,  which  may  be 
compared  with  stanzas  ix.  and  x.  of  Lauda  Sion : — 


"Bib 
Bib 
Bib 
Bib 
Bib 
Bib 
Bib 
Bib 


t  hera,  bibit  herus, 
t  miles,  bibit  clerus, 
t  ille,  bibit  ilia, 
t  servus  cum  ancilla, 
t  velox,  bibit  piger, 
t  albus,  bibit  niger, 
t  constans,  bibit  vagus, 
t  rudis,  bibit  magus." 


Several  of  the  best  anacreontics  of  the  period  are 
even  more  distinctly  parodies.  The  following  panegyric 
of  wine,  for  example,  is  modelled  upon  a  hymn  to  the 
Virgin : — 

^   In  Taberna,  Carm,  Bur.,  p.  235. 


^ 


134       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND    SONG 


A   SEQUENCE   IN   PRAISE   OF   WINE 

No.  45 
"INE  the  good  and  bland,  thou  blessing 


w: 


Of  the  good,  the  bad's  distressing. 
Sweet  of  taste  by  all  confessing. 

Hail,  thou  world's  felicity  ! 
Hail  thy  hue,  life's  gloom  dispelling  ; 
Hail  thy  taste,  all  tastes  excelling  ; 
By  thy  power,  in  this  thy  dwelling 

Deign  to  make  us  drunk  with  thee ! 

Oh,  how  blest  for  bounteous  uses 
Is  the  birth  of  pure  vine- juices  ! 
Safe's  the  table  which  produces 

Wine  in  goodly  quality. 
Oh,  in  colour  how  auspicious ! 
Oh,  in  odour  how  delicious ! 
In  the  mouth  how  sweet,  propitious 

To  the  tongue  enthralled  by  thee ! 

Blest  the  man  who  first  thee  planted, 
Called  thee  by  thy  name  enchanted ! 
He  whose  cups  have  ne'er  been  scanted 

Dreads  no  danger  that  may  be. 
Blest  the'  belly  where  thou  bidest ! 
Blest  the  tongue  where  thou  residest ! 
Blest  the  mouth  through  which  thou  glidest. 

And  the  lips  thrice  blest  by  thee  ! 


A   CAROL    OF   WINE  135 

Therefore  let  wine's  praise  be  sounded, 
Healths  to  topers  all  propounded  ; 
We  shall  never  be  confounded, 

Toping  for  eternity  ! 
Pray  we  :   here  be  thou  still  flowing. 
Plenty  on  our  board  bestowing, 
While  with  jocund  voice  we're  showing 

How  we  serve  thee — Jubilee  ! 

Another,  regarding  the  date  of  which  I  have  no 
information,  is  an  imitation  of  a  well-known  Christmas 
Carol. 


A   CAROL    OF    WINE 
No.  46 

IN  dulci  jubilo 
Sing  we,  make  merry  so ! 
Since  our  heart's  pleasure 
Latet  in  poculo. 

Drawn  from  the  cask,  good  measure. 
Pro  hoc  convivio, 

Nunc,  nunc  bibito ! 

O  crater  parvule ! 

How  my  soul  yearns  for  thee  ! 

Make  me  now  merry, 
O  potus  optime. 

Claret  or  hock  or  sherry ! 
Et  vos  concinite  : 
Vivant  socii ! 


136       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

O  vini  caritas ! 
O  Bacchi  lenitas ! 

We've  drained  our  purses 
Per  multa  pocula : 

Yet  hope  we  for  new  mercies, 
Nummorum  gaudia : 

Would  that  we  had  them,  ah  ! 

Ubi  sunt  gaudia  ?  where, 
If  that  they  be  not  there  ? 

There  the  lads  are  singing 
Selecta  cantica : 

There  are  glasses  ringing 
In  villae  curia ; 

Oh,  would  that  we  were  there  ! 


In  Dulci  Jubilo  yields  an  example  of  mixed  Latin 
and  German.  This  is  the  case  too  with  a  compara- 
tively ancient  drinking-song  quoted  by  Geiger  in  his 
Renaissance  und  Humanismus,  p.  4 14.  It  may  be 
mentioned  that  the  word  Bursae,  for  Burschen^  occurs 
in  stanza  v.  This  word,  to  indicate  a  student,  can 
also  be  found  in  Carm.  Bur.,  p.  236,  where  we  are 
introduced  to  scholars  drinking  yellow  Rhine  wine  out 
of  glasses  of  a  pale  pink  colour — already  in  the  twelfth 
century  ! 


THE   STUDENTS*   WINE-BOUT     137 

THE   STUDENTS'   WINE-BOUT 

No.  47 

HO,  all  ye  jovial  brotherhood, 
Quos  sitis  vexat  plurima, 
I  know  a  host  whose  wits  are  good, 
Quod  vina  spectat  optima. 

His  wine  he  blends  not  with  the  juice 

E  puteo  qui  sumitur  ; 
Each  kind  its  virtue  doth  produce 

E  botris  ut  exprimitui*. 

Host,  bring  us  forth  good  wine  and  strong. 

In  cella  quod  est  optimum  ! 
We  brethren  will  our  sport  prolong 

Ad  noctis  usque  terminum. 

Whoso  to  snarl  or  bite  is  fain, 

Ut  canes  decet  rabidos. 
Outside  our  circle  may  remain. 

Ad  porcos  eat  sordidos. 

Hurrah  !   my  lads,  we'll  merry  make  ! 

Levate  sursum  pocula ! 
God's  blessing  on  all  wine  we  take. 

In  sempiterna  saecula ! 

Two  lyrics  of  distinguished  excellence,  which  still 
hold  their  place  in  the  Commersbuch,  cannot  claim 
certain  antiquity  in  their  present  form.  They  are  not 
included  in  the  Carmina  Bur  ana ;  yet  their  style  is  so 


138       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

characteristic  of  the  Archipoeta,  that  I  believe  we  may 
credit  him  with  at  least  a  share  in  their  composition. 
The  first  starts  with  an  allusion  to  the  Horatian  tempus 
edax  rerum. 


TIME'S   A-FLYING 
No.  48 

LAUREL-CROWNED  Horatius, 
True,  how  true  thy  saying  ! 
Swift  as  wind  flies  over  us 

Time,  devouring,  slaying. 
Where  are,  oh  !  those  goblets  full 

Of  wine  honey-laden. 
Strifes  and  loves  and  bountiful 
Lips  of  ruddy  maiden  ? 

Grows  the  young  grape  tenderly. 

And  the  maid  is  growing  ; 
But  the  thirsty  poet,  see. 

Years  on  him  are  snowing  ! 
What's  the  use  on  hoary  curls 

Of  the  bays  undying. 
If  we  may  not  kiss  the  girls. 

Drink  while  time's  a-flying  ? 

The  second  consists  of  a  truly  brilliant  development 
of  the  theme  which  our  Herrick  condensed  into  one 
splendid  phrase — "  There's  no  lust  like  to  poetry  !  " 


NO    LUST    LIKE   TO    POETRY     139 


s 


THERE'S   NO   LUST   LIKE   TO   POETRY 

No.  49 

'WEET  in  goodly  fellowship 
Tastes  red  wine  and  rare  O  ! 
But  to  kiss  a  girl's  ripe  lip 

Is  a  gift  more  fair  O  ! 
Yet  a  gift  more  sweet,  more  fine, 

Is  the  lyre  of  Maro  ! 
While  these  three  good  gifts  were  mine, 

I'd  not  change  with  Pharaoh. 

Bacchus  wakes  within  my  breast 

Love  and  love's  desire, 
Venus  comes  and  stirs  the  blessed 

Rage  of  Phoebus'  fire  ; 
Deathless  honour  is  our  due 

From  the  laurelled  sire  : 
Woe  should  I  turn  traitor  to 

Wine  and  love  and  lyre  ! 

Should  a  tyrant  rise  and  say, 

"  Give  up  wine  !  "  I'd  do  it ; 
"  Love  no  girls  !  "  I  would  obey. 

Though  my  heart  should  rue  it. 
"  Dash  thy  lyre  !  "  suppose  he  saith, 

Naught  should  bring  me  to  it ; 
"  Yield  thy  lyre  or  die  !  "  my  breath, 

Dying,  should  thrill  through  it ! 

A  lyric  of  the  elder  period  in  praise  of  wine  and 
love,  which  forcibly  illustrates  the  contempt  felt  by  the 


140       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

student  class  for  the  unlettered  laity  and  boors,  shall  be 
inserted  here.     It  seems  to  demand  a  tune. 


H 


WINE   AND   VENUS 
No.  50 

O,  comrades  mine  ! 

What  is  your  pleasure  ? 
What  business  fine 
Or  mirthful  measure  ? 
Lo,  Venus  toward  our  crew  advancing, 
A  choir  of  Dryads  round  her  dancing  ! 

Good  fellows  you ! 

The  time  is  jolly  ! 
Earth  springs  anew. 
Bans  melancholy  ; 
Bid  long  farewell  to  winter  weather ! 
Let  lads  and  maids  be  blithe  together. 

Dame  Venus  spurns 

Her  brother  Ocean ; 
To  Bacchus  turns ; 
No  colder  potion 
Deserves  her  godhead^s  approbation ; 
On  sober  souls  she  pours  damnation. 

Let  then  this  band. 

Imbued  with  learning. 
By  Venus  stand, 
Her  wages  earning  ! 
Laymen  we  spurn  from  our  alliance. 
Like  brutes  to  art  deaf,  dumb  to  science. 


WINE    AND    VENUS 


CONTEST   OF   WINE   AND  WATER     143 

Two  gods  alone 

We  serve  and  mate  with  ; 
One  law  we  own, 

Nor  hold  debate  with  : 
Who  lives  the  goodly  student  fashion 
Must  love  and  win  love  back  with  passion  ! 

Among  drinking-songs  of  the  best  period  in  this 
literature  may  be  reckoned  two  disputations  between 
water  and  wine.  In  the  one,  Thetis  defends  herself 
against  Lyaeus,  and  the  poet  assists  in  vision  at  their 
contest.  The  scene  is  appropriately  laid  in  the  third 
sphere,  the  pleasant  heaven  of  Venus.  The  other, 
which  on  the  whole  appears  to  me  preferable,  and 
which  I  have  therefore  chosen  for  translation,  begins 
and  ends  with  the  sound  axiom  that  water  and  wine 
ought  never  to  be  mixed.  It  is  manifest  that  the  poet 
reserves  the  honour  of  the  day  for  wine,  though  his 
arguments  are  fair  to  both  sides.  The  final  point, 
which  breaks  the  case  of  water  down  and  determines 
her  utter  confusion,  is  curious,  since  it  shows  that 
people  in  the  Middle  Ages  were  fully  alive  to  the 
perils  of  sewage-contaminated  wells. 


THE  CONTEST  OF    WINE  AND  WATER 

No.  51 
AYING  truth  bare,  stripped  of  fable. 


L 


Briefly  as  I  may  be  able, 
With  good  reasons  manifold, 


144       WINE,    WOMEN,   AND    SONG 

I  will  tell  why  man  should  never 
Copulate,  but  rather  sever, 

Things  that  strife  and  hatred  hold. 

When  one  cup  in  fell  confusion 
Wine  with  water  blends,  the  fusion, 

Call  it  by  what  name  you  will. 
Is  no  blessing,  nor  deserveth 
Any  praise,  but  rather  serveth 

For  the  emblem  of  all  ill. 

Wine  perceives  the  water  present, 

And  with  pain  exclaims,  "  What  peasant 

Dared  to  mingle  thee  with  me  ? 
Rise,  go  forth,  get  out,  and  leave  me  ! 
In  the  same  place,  here  to  grieve  me. 

Thou  hast  no  just  claim  to  be. 

"Vile  and  shameless  in  thy  going, 
Into  cracks  thou  still  art  flowing, 

That  in  foul  holes  thou  mayst  lie  ; 
O'er  the  earth  thou  ought'st  to  wander. 
On  the  earth  thy  liquor  squander. 

And  at  length  in  anguish  die. 

"  How  canst  thou  adorn  a  table  ? 
No  one  sings  or  tells  a  fable 

In  thy  presence  dull  and  drear  ; 
But  the  guest  who  erst  was  jolly, 
Laughing,  joking,  bent  on  folly, 

Silent  sits  when  thou  art  near. 

"  Should  one  drink  of  thee  to  fulness, 
Sound  before,  he  takes  an  illness ; 
All  his  bowels  thou  dost  stir  ; 


CONTEST  OF   WINE   AND   WATER     145 

Booms  the  belly,  wind  ariseth, 
Which,  enclosed  and  pent,  surpriseth 
With  a  thousand  sighs  the  ear. 

"  When  the  stomach*s  so  inflated, 
Blasts  are  then  ejaculated 

From  both  draughts  with  divers  sound  ; 
And  that  organ  thus  affected. 
All  the  air  is  soon  infected 

By  the  poison  breathed  around.*' 

Water  thus  wine's  home-thrust  warded  : 
"  All  thy  life  is  foul  and  sordid, 

Sunk  in  misery,  steeped  in  vice ; 
Those  who  drink  thee  lose  their  morals. 
Waste  their  time  in  sloth  and  quarrels, 

Rolling  down  sin's  precipice. 

"  Thou  dost  teach  man's  tongue  to  stutter  ; 
He  goes  reeling  in  the  gutter 

Who  hath  deigned  to  kiss  thy  lips ; 
Hears  men  speak  without  discerning. 
Sees  a  hundred  tapers  burning 

When  there  are  but  two  poor  dips. 

"  He  who  feels  for  thee  soul's  hunger 
Is  a  murderer  or  whoremonger, 

Davus  Geta  Birria ; 
Such  are  they  whom  thou  dost  nourish ; 
With  thy  fame  and  name  they  flourish 

In  the  tavern's  disarray. 

"  Thou  by  reason  of  thy  badness 
Art  confined  in  prison  sadness. 

Cramped  and  small  thy  dwellings  are  : 

L 


146      WINE,    WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

I  am  great  the  whole  world  over. 
Spread  myself  abroad  and  cover 
Every  part  of  earth  afar. 

"  Drink  I  yield  to  palates  burning ; 
They  who  for  soul's  health  are  yearning, 

Need  the  aid  that  I  have  given  ; 
Since  all  pilgrims,  at  their  praying. 
Far  or  near,  I  am  conveying 

To  the  palaces  of  heaven." 

Wine  replied  :  "  What  thou  hast  vaunted 
Proves  thee  full  of  fraud  ;  for  granted 

That  thou  carriest  ships  o'er  sea, 
Yet  thou  then  dost  swell  and  riot ; 
Till  they  wreck  thou  hast  no  quiet ; 

Thus  they  are  deceived  through  thee. 

"  He  whose  strength  is  insufficient 
Thee  to  slake  with  heat  efficient, 

Sunk  in  mortal  peril  lies  : 
Trusting  thee  the  poor  wretch  waneth, 
And  through  thee -at  length  attaineth 

To  the  joys  of  Paradise. 

"  I'm  a  god,  as  that  true  poet 
Naso  testifies  ;   men  owe  it 

Unto  me  that  they  are  sage  ; 
When  they  do  not  drink,  professors 
Lose  their  wits  and  lack  assessors 

Round  about  the  lecture-stage. 
"  'Tis  impossible  to  sever 
Truth  from  falsehood  if  you  never 

Learn  to  drink  my  juices  neat. 


CONTEST   OF    WINE  AND   WATER     147 

Thanks  to  me,  dumb  speak,  deaf  listen, 
Blind  folk  sec,  the  senses  glisten. 
And  the  lame  man  finds  his  feet. 

*'  Eld  through  me  to  youth  returneth, 
While  thine  influence  o'erturneth 

All  a  young  man's  lustihead ; 
By  my  force  the  world  is  laden 
With  new  births,  but  boy  or  maiden 

Through  thy  help  was  never  bred." 

Water  saith  :   "A  god  thou  !     Just  men 
By  thy  craft  become  unjust  men. 

Bad,  worse,  worst,  degenerous  ! 
Thanks  to  thee,  their  words  half  uttered 
Through  the  drunken  lips  are  stuttered. 

And  thy  sage  is  Didymus. 

"  I  will  speak  the  truth  out  wholly : 
Earth  bears  fruit  by  my  gift  solely. 

And  the  meadows  bloom  in  May ; 
When  it  rains  not,  herbs  and  grasses 
Dry  with  drought,  spring's  beauty  passes, 

Flowers  and  lilies  fade  away. 

*'  Lo,  thy  crooked  mother  pining. 
On  her  boughs  the  grapes  declining. 

Barren  through  the  dearth  of  rain  ; 
Mark  her  tendrils  lean  and  sterile 
O'er  the  parched  earth  at  their  peril 

Bent  in  unavailing  pain  ! 

"  Famine  through  all  lands  prevaileth, 
Terror-struck  the  people  waileth, 
When  I  choose  to  keep  away  ; 


148       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Christians  kneel  to  Christ  to  gain  me, 
Jews  and  Pagans  to  obtain  me 

Ceaseless  vows  and  offerings  pay." 

Wine  saith  ;  "  To  the  deaf  thou'rt  singing 
Those  vain  self-laudations  flinging  ! 

Otherwhere  thou  hast  been  shown  ! 
Patent  'tis  to  all  the  races 
How  impure  and  foul  thy  place  is  ; 

We  believe  what  we  have  known ! 

"  Thou  of  things  the  scum  and  rotten 
Sewer,  where  ordures  best  forgotten 

And  unmentioned  still  descend  ! 
Filth  and  garbage,  stench  and  poison. 
Thou  dost  bear  in  fetid  foison  ! 

Here  I  stop  lest  words  offend." 

Water  rose,  the  foe  invaded, 
In  her  own  defence  upbraided 

Wine  for  his  invective  base : 
"  Now  at  last  we've  drawn  the  curtain ! 
Who,  what  god  thou  art  is  certain 

From  thy  oracle's  disgrace. 

"  This  thine  impudent  oration 
Hurts  not  me  ;  'tis  desecration 

To  a  god,  and  fouls  his  tongue  ! 
At  the  utmost  at  nine  paces 
Can  I  suffer  filthy  places. 

Fling  far  from  me  dirt  and  dung  !  " 

Wine  saith  :   "This  repudiation 
Of  my  well-weighed  imputation 
Doth  not  clear  thyself  of  crime  ! 


BACCHIC   FRENZY  149 

Many  a  man  and  oft  who  swallowed 
Thine  infected  potion,  followed 
After  death  in  one  day's  time." 

Hearing  this,  in  stupefaction 
Water  stood  ;  no  words,  no  action, 

Now  restrained  her  sobs  of  woe. 
Wine  exclaims,  *'  Why  art  thou  dumb  then  ? 
Without  answer  ?     Is  it  come  then 

To  thy  complete  overthrow  ?  " 

I  who  heard  the  whole  contention 
Now  declare  my  song's  intention, 

And  to  all  the  world  proclaim  : 
They  who  mix  these  things  shall  ever 
Henceforth  be  accursed,  and  never 

In  Christ's  kingdom  portion  claim. 

The  same  precept,  "  Keep  wine  and  water  apart," 
is  conveyed  at  the  close  of  a  lyric  distinguished  in 
other  respects  for  the  brutal  passion  of  its  drunken 
fervour.  I  have  not  succeeded  in  catching  the  rollick- 
ing swing  of  the  original  verse  ;  and  I  may  observe 
that  the  last  two  stanzas  seem  to  form  a  separate  song, 
although  their  metre  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  first 
four. 

BACCHIC   FRENZY 
No.  52 

TOPERS  in  and  out  of  season  ! 
'Tis  not  thirst  but  better  reason 
Bids  you  tope  on  steadily  !  — 
Pass  the  wine-cup,  let  it  be 


I50       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Filled  and  filled  for  bout  on  bout ! 

Never  sleep  ! 
Racy  jest  and  song  flash  out! 

Spirits  leap  ! 

Those  who  cannot  drink  their  rations, 
Go,  begone  from  these  ovations  ! 
Here's  no  place  for  bashful  boys  ; 
Like  the  plague,  they  spoil  our  joys. — 
Bashful  eyes  bring  rustic  cheer 
When  we're  drunk. 
And  a  blush  betrays  a  drear 
Want  of  spunk. 

If  there's  here  a  fellow  lurking 
Who  his  proper  share  is  shirking, 
Let  the  door  to  him  be  shown, 
From  our  crew  we'll  have  him  thrown  ;■ 
He's  more  desolate  than  death, 

Mixed  with  us  ; 
Let  him  go  and  end  his  breath  ! 
Better  thus  ! 

When  your  heart  is  set  on  drinking. 
Drink  on  without  stay  or  thinking. 
Till  you  cannot  stand  up  straight. 
Nor  one  word  articulate  !  — 
But  herewith  I  pledge  to  you 

This  fair  health  : 
May  the  glass  no  mischief  do, 
Bring  you  wealth ! 


COMIC   DITTIES  151 

Wed  not  you  tlic  god  and  goddess, 
For  the  god  doth  scorn  the  goddess ; 
He  whose  name  is  Liber,  he 
Glories  in  his  liberty. 
All  her  virtue  in  the  cup 
Runs  to  waste, 
And  wine  wedded  yieldeth  up 
Strength  and  taste. 

Since  she  is  the  queen  of  ocean. 
Goddess  she  may  claim  devotion  : 
But  she  is  no  mate  to  kiss 
His  superior  holiness. 
Bacchus  never  deigned  to  be 

Watered,  he  ! 
Liber  never  bore  to  be 

Christened,  he  ! 


XX 

Closely  allied  to  drinking-songs  are  some  comic 
ditties  which  may  have  been  sung  at  wine-parties.  Of 
these  I  have  thought  it  worth  while  to  present  a  few 
specimens,  though  their  medieval  bluntness  of  humour 
does  not  render  them  particularly  entertaining  to  a 
modern  reader. 

The  first  I  have  chosen  is  The  Lament  of  the  Roast 
Sivan.  It  must  be  remembered  that  this  bird  was 
esteemed  a  delicacy  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  also  that 
pepper  was  highly  prized  for  its  rarity.  This  gives  a 
certain  point  to  the  allusion  in  the  third  stanza. 


152       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 


THE    LAMENT   OF  THE   ROAST  SWAN 

No.  53 

TIME  was  my  wings  were  my  delight. 
Time  was  I  made  a  lovely  sight ; 
'Twas  when  I  was  a  swan  snow-white. 
Woe's  me  !   I  vow, 
Black  am  I  now. 
Burned  up,  back,  beak,  and  brow  ! 

The  baster  turns  me  on  the  spit. 
The  fire  I've  felt  the  force  of  it, 
The  carver  carves  me  bit  by  bit, 

I'd  rather  in  the  water  float 
Under  the  bare  heavens  like  a  boat, 
Than  have  this  pepper  down  my  throat. 

Whiter  I  was  than  wool  or  snow. 
Fairer  than  any  bird  I  know  ; 
Now  am  I  blacker  than  a  crow. 

Now  in  the  gravy-dish  I  lie, 
I  cannot  swim,  I  cannot  fly. 
Nothing  but  gnashing  teeth  I  spy. 
Woe's  me  !   I  vow,  &c. 

The  next  is  The  Last  Will  of  the  Dying  j4ss.      There 
is  not  much  to  be  said  for  the  wit  of  this  piece. 


THE   WILL    OF   THE   DYING   ASS     153 

THE   WILL    OF    THE    DYING    ASS 

No.  54 

WHILE  a  boor,  as  poets  tell, 
Whacked  his  patient  ass  too  well. 
On  the  ground  half  dead  it  fell. 

La  sol  fa. 
On  the  ground  half  dead  it  fell. 
La  sol  fa  mi  re  ut. 

Then  with  gesture  sad  and  low. 
Streaming  eyes  and  words  of  woe, 
He  at  length  addressed  it  so  : 

"  Had  I  known,  my  gentle  ass. 
Thou  from  me  so  soon  wouldst  pass, 
I'd  have  swaddled  thee,  alas  ! 

"  Made  for  thee  a  tunic  meet, 
Shirt  and  undershirt  complete, 
Breeches,  drawers  of  linen  sweet. 

*'  Rise  awhile,  for  pity's  sake. 
That  ere  life  your  limbs  forsake 
You  your  legacies  may  make  !  " 

Soon  the  ass  stood  up,  and  thus. 
With  a  weak  voice  dolorous, 
His  last  will  proclaimed  for  us  : 

"  To  the  magistrates  my  head, 

Eyes  to  constables,"  he  said, 

"  Ears  to  judges,  when  I'm  dead  j 


154       WINE,  WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

"  To  old  men  my  teeth  shall  fall. 

Lips  to  wanton  wooers  all, 

And  my  tongue  to  wives  that  brawl. 

*'  Let  my  feet  the  bailiffs  win, 
Nostrils  the  tobacco-men, 
And  fat  canons  take  my  skin. 

"  Voice  to  singing  boys  I  give. 
Throat  to  topers,  may  they  live  ! 
■^^■^■^  to  students  amative. 

***  on  shepherds  I  bestow. 
Thistles  on  divines,  and  lo  ! 
To  the  law  my  shade  shall  go. 

"  Elders  have  my  tardy  pace. 
Boys  my  rude  and  rustic  grace. 
Monks  my  simple  open  face." 

He  who  saith  this  testament 
Will  not  hold,  let  him  be  shent ; 
He's  an  ass  by  all  consent. 

La  sol  fa. 
He's  an  ass  by  all  consent, 
La  sol  fa  mi  re  ut. 

As  a  third  specimen  I  select  a  little  bit  of  mixed 
prose  and  verse  from  the  Carm'tna  Burana^  which  is 
curious  from  its  allusion  to  the  Land  of  Cockaigne. 
Goliardic  literature,  it  may  be  parenthetically  observed, 
has  some  strong  pieces  of  prose  comedy  and  satire. 
Of  these,  the  Mass  of  Topers  and  Mass  of  Gamesters^ 
the  Gospel  according  to  Marks^  and  the  description  of  a 


IN    THE    SECT    OF    DECIUS 


THE   ABBOT   OF   COCKAIGNE     157 

fat  monk's  daily  life  deserve  quotation.^  They  are 
for  the  most  part,  however,  too  profane  to  bear 
translation. 


THE   ABBOT   OF   COCKAIGNE 

No.  55 

I  AM  the  Abbot  of  Cockaigne, 
And  this  is  my  counsel  with  topers  ; 
And  in  the  sect  of  Decius  (gamesters)  this  is  my  will ; 
And  whoso  shall  seek  me  in  taverns  before  noon ; 
After  evensong  shall  he  go  forth  naked, 
And  thus,  stripped  of  raiment,  shall  lament  him  : 
Wafna !   wafna ! 
O  Fate  most  foul,  what  hast  thou  done  ? 
The  joys  of  man  beneath  the  sun 
Thou  hast  stolen,  every  one ! 

XXI  -^, 

The  transition  from  these  trivial  and  slightly  interest- 
ing comic  songs  to  poems  of  a  serious  import,  which 
played  so  important  a  part  in  Goliardic  literature,  must 
of  necessity  be  abrupt.  It  forms  no  part  of  my  present 
purpose  to  exhibit  the  Wandering  Students  in  their 
capacity  as  satirists.  That  belongs  more  properly  to 
a  study  of  the  earlier  Reformation  than  to  such  an 
inquiry  as  I  have  undertaken  in  this  treatise.      Satires, 

1  Wright's  Rel.  Ant.,  ii.  ;  Carm.  Bur.,  pp.  248  and  22; 
Wright's  Mapes,  p.   xl. 


158       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND    SONG 

especially  medieval  satires,  are  apt,  besides,  to  lose 
their  force  and  value  in  translation.  I  have  therefore 
confined  myself  to  five  specimens,  more  or  less  closely 
connected  with  the  subjects  handled  in  this  study. 

The  first  has  the  interest  of  containing  some  ideas 
which  Villon  preserved  in  his  ballad  of  the  men  of  old 
time. 


DEATH    TAKES    ALL 

No.  56 

HEAR,  O  thou  earth,  hear,  thou  encircling  sea, 
Yea,  all  that  live  beneath  the  sun,  hear  ye 
How  of  this  world  the  bravery  and  the  glory 
Are  but  vain  forms  and  shadows  transitory, 
Even  as  all  things  'neath  Time's  empire  show 
By  their  short  durance  and  swift  overthrow ! 

Nothing  avails  the  dignity  of  kings. 
Naught,  naught  avail  the  strength  and  stuff  of  things  ; 
The  wisdom  of  the  arts  no  succour  brings  ; 
Genus  and  species  help  not  at  death's  hour, 
No  man  was  saved  by  gold  in  that  dread  stour  ; 
The  substance  of  things  fadeth  as  a  flower, 
As  ice  'neath  sunshine  melts  into  a  shower. 

Where  is  Plato,  where  is  Porphyrius  ? 
Where  is  Tullius,  where  is  Virgilius  ? 
Where  is  Thales,  where  is  Empedocles, 
Or  illustrious  Aristoteles  ? 
Where's  Alexander,  peerless  of  might  ? 
Where  is  Hector,  Troy's  stoutest  knight  ? 


AUTUMN   YEARS  159 

Where  is  King  David,  learning's  light  ? 
Solomon  where,  that  wisest  wight? 
Where  is  Helen,  and  Paris  rose-bright  ? 

They  have  fallen  to  the  bottom,  as  a  stone  rolls : 
Who  knows  if  rest  be  granted  to  their  souls  ? 

But  Thou,  O  God,  of  faithful  men  the  Lord, 
To  us  Thy  favour  evermore  afford 
When  on  the  wicked  judgment  shall  be  poured  ! 

The  second  marks  the  passage  from  those  feelings 
of  youth  and  springtime  which  have  been  copiously 
illustrated  in  Sections  xiv.-xvii.,  to  emotions  befitting 
later  manhood  and  life's  autumn. 


AUTUMN   YEARS 
No.  57 

WHILE  life's  April  blossom  blew, 
What  I  willed  I  then  might  do. 
Lust  and  law  seemed  comrades  true. 

As  I  listed,  unresisted. 
Hither,  thither,  could  I  play, 
And  my  wanton  flesh  obey. 

When  life's  autumn  days  decline. 
Thus  to  live,  a  libertine, 
Fancy-free  as  thoughts  incline, 

Manhood's  older  age  and  colder 
Now  forbids  ;   removes,  destroys 
All  those  ways  of  wonted  joys. 


i6o       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Age  with  admonition  wise 
Thus  doth  counsel  and  advise. 
While  her  voice  within  me  cries : 

"  For  repenting  and  relenting 
There  is  room  ;   forgiveness  falls 
On  all  contrite  prodigals!  " 

I  will  seek  a  better  mind ; 
Change,  correct,  and  leave  behind 
What  I  did  with  purpose  blind  : 

From  vice  sever,  with  endeavour 
Yield  my  soul  to  serious  things, 
Seek  the  joy  that  virtue  brings. 

The  third  would  find  a  more  appropriate  place  in  a 
hymn-book  than  in  a  collection  of  Carmina  Vagorum. 
It  is,  however,  written  in  a  lyrical  style  so  closely 
allied  to  the  secular  songs  of  the  Carmina  Burana 
(where  it  occurs)  that  I  have  thought  it  well  to  quote 
its  grimly  medieval  condemnation  of  human  life. 


VANITAS   VANITATUM 

No.  58 

THIS  vile  world 
In  madness  hurled 
Offers  but  false  shadows ; 
Joys  that  wane 
And  waste  like  vain 

Lilies  of  the  meadows. 


V ANITAS   VANITATUM  i6i 

Worldly  wealth, 

Youth,  strength,  and  health. 

Cramp  the  soul's  endeavour  ; 
Drive  it  down 
In  hell  to  drown, 

Hell  that  burns  for  ever. 

What  we  see. 
And  what  let  be. 

While  on  earth  we  tarry, 
We  shall  cast 
Like  leaves  at  last 

Which  the  sere  oaks  carry. 

Carnal  life, 

Man's  law  of  strife. 

Hath  but  brief  existence ; 
Passes,  fades. 
Like  wavering  shades 

Without  real  subsistence. 

Therefore  bind. 
Tread  down  and  grind 

Fleshly  lusts  that  blight  us ; 
So  heaven's  bliss 
'Mid  saints  that  kiss 

Shall  for  aye  delight  us. 

The  fourth,  in  like  manner,  would  have  but  little 
to  do  with  a  Commersbuch,  were  it  not  for  the  fact 
that  the  most  widely  famous  modern  student-song  of 
Germany  has  borrowed  two  passages  from  its  serious 

M 


i62       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

and  tragic  rhythm.  Close  inspection  of  Gaudeamus 
Igitur  shows  that  the  metrical  structure  of  that  song  is 
based  on  the  principle  of  quoting  one  of  its  long  lines 
and  rhyming  to  it. 


ON   CONTEMPT   FOR   THE   WORLD 

No.  59 

"  1  "\E  contemptu  mundi :  "  this  is  the  theme  I've 

1.  J     taken : 
Time  it  is  from  sleep   to  rise,   from   death's  torpor 

waken  : 
Gather  virtue's  grain  and  leave  tares  of  sin  forsaken. 
Rise   up,  rise,   be  vigilant ;    trim    your    lamp,  be 
ready. 

Brief  is  life,  and  brevity  briefly  shall  be  ended : 
Death  comes  quick,  fears  no  man,  none  hath  his  dart 

suspended : 
Death    kills  all,  to   no  man's  prayer    hath    he    con- 
descended. 
Rise    up,   rise,   be   vigilant ;    trim    your    lamp,   be 
ready. 

Where  are  they  who  in  this  world,  ere  we  kept,  were 

keeping  ? 
Come  unto  the  churchyard,  thou  !   see  where  they  are 

sleeping ! 
Dust  and  ashes  are  they,  worms   in   their   flesh    are 

creeping. 
Rise   up,  rise,   be   vigilant ;    trim  your    lamp,   be 

ready. 


ON  CONTEMPT  FOR  THE  WORLD     163 

Into  life  each  man  is  born  with  great  teen  and  trouble  : 
All  through  life  he  drags  along  ;  toil  on  toil  is  double : 
When  life's  done,  the  pangs  of  death  take  him,  break 

the  bubble. 
Rise   up,   rise,   be   vigilant ;    trim    your    lamp,  be 

ready. 

If  from  sin  thou  hast  been  turned,   born  a  new  man 

wholly. 
Changed  thy  life  to  better   things,  childlike,  simple, 

holy  ; 
Thus    into    God's  realm    shalt    thou    enter  with    the 

lowly. 
Rise  up,  rise,   be    vigilant ;    trim    your    lamp,  be 

ready. 

Having  alluded  to  Gaudeamus  Ig'ttur,  I  shall  close 
my  translations  with  a  version  of  it  into  English.  The 
dependence  of  this  lyric  upon  the  rhythm  and  substance 
of  the  poem  on  Contempt  for  the  World,  which  I  have 
already  indicated,  is  perhaps  the  reason  why  it  is  sung 
by  German  students  after  the  funeral  of  a  comrade. 
The  Office  for  the  Dead  sounding  in  their  ears, 
occasions  the  startling  igitur  with  which  it  opens ;  and 
their  mind  reverts  to  solemn  phrases  in  the  midst  of 
masculine  determination  to  enjoy  the  present  while  it  is 
yet  theirs. 


164       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 


L 


GAUDEAMUS   IGITUR 

No.  60 

ET  us  live,  then,  and  be  glad 
While  young  life's  before  us  ! 
After  youthful  pastime  had. 
After  old  age  hard  and  sad, 
Earth  will  slumber  o'er  us. 


Where  are  they  who  in  this  world. 
Ere  we  kept,  were  keeping  ? 
Go  ye  to  the  gods  above  ; 
Go  to  hell;   inquire  thereof: 
They  are  not ;  they're  sleeping. 

Brief  is  life,  and  brevity 

Briefly  shall  be  ended  : 

Death  comes  like  a  whirlwind  strong, 
Bears  us  with  his  blast  along  ; 

None  shall  be  defended. 

Live  this  university. 

Men  that  learning  nourish  ; 

Live  each  member  of  the  same, 
Long  live  all  that  bear  its  name ; 

Let  them  ever  flourish  ! 

Live  the  commonwealth  also, 

And  the  men  that  guide  it ! 

Live  our  town  in  strength  and  health, 
Founders,  patrons,  by  whose  wealth 

We  are  here  provided  ! 


GAUDEAMUS    IGITUR  165 

Live  all  girls  !    A  health  to  you, 
Melting  maids  and  beauteous  ! 

Live  the  wives  and  women  too, 

Gentle,  loving,  tender,  true. 
Good,  industrious,  duteous ! 

Perish  cares  that  pule  and  pine ! 
Peris-h  envious  blamers  ! 

Die  the  Devil,  thine  and  mine  ! 

Die  the  starch-necked  Philistine  ! 
Scoffers  and  defamers ! 


XXII 

I  have  now  fulfilled  the  purpose  which  I  had  in 
view  when  I  began  this  study  of  the  Carm'tna  Vagorum, 
and  have  reproduced  in  English  verse  what  seemed  to 
me  the  most  characteristic  specimens  of  that  literature, 
in  so  far  as  it  may  be  considered  precursory  of  the 
Renaissance. 

In  spite  of  novelty,  in  spite  of  historical  interest, 
in  spite  of  a  certain  literary  charm,  it  is  not  an  edify- 
ing product  of  medieval  art  with  which  I  have  been 
dealing.  When  I  look  back  upon  my  own  work, 
and  formulate  the  impression  left  upon  my  mind  by 
familiarity  with  the  songs  I  have  translated,  the  doubt 
occurs  whether  some  apology  be  not  required  for 
having  dragged  these  forth  from  antiquarian  obscurity. 

The  truth  is  that  there  is  very  little  that  is  elevated 
in  the  lyrics  of  the  Goliardi.  They  are  almost  wholly 
destitute  of  domestic  piety,  of  patriotism,  of  virtuous 
impulse,  of  heroic  resolve.      The  greatness  of  an  epoch 


1 66       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

which  throbbed  with  the  enthusiasms  of  the  Crusades, 
which  gave  birth  to  a  Francis  and  a  Dominic,  which 
witnessed  the  manly  resistance  offered  by  the  Lombard 
burghs  to  the  Teutonic  Emperor,  the  formation  of 
Northern  France  into  a  solid  monarchy,  and  the 
victorious  struggle  of  the  Papacy  against  the  Empire, 
finds  but  rare  expression  in  this  poetry.  I  From  the 
Carmina  Burana  we  cull  one  chant  indeed  on  Saladin, 
one  spirited  lament  for  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion;  but 
their  general  tone  is  egotistic. 

Even  the  satires,  so  remarkable  for  boldness,  are 
directed  against  those  ecclesiastical  abuses  which 
touched  the  interests  of  the  clerkly  classes — against 
simony,  avarice,  venality  in  the  Roman  Curia,  against 
the  ambition  of  prelates  and  the  effort  to  make  princely 
benefices  hereditary,  rather  than  against  the  real  sins 
of  the  Church — her  wilful  solidification  of  popular 
superstitions  for  the  purposes  of  self-aggrandisement, 
her  cruel  persecution  of  free  thought,  and  her  deflection 
from  the  spirit  of  her  Founder. 
Ij  f  With  regard  to  women,  abundant  examples  have 
been  adduced  to  illustrate  the  sensual  and  unromantic 
spirit  of  these  lettered  lovers.  A  note  of  undisguised 
materialism  sounds  throughout  the  large  majority  of  their 
erotic  songs.  Tenderness  of  feeling  is  rarely  present. 
The  passion  is  one-sided,  recognised  as  ephemeral,  with- 
out a  vista  on  the  sanctities  of  life  in  common  with  the 
beloved  object.  Notable  exceptions  to  the  general  rule 
are  the  lyrics  I  have  printed  above  on  pp.  J^-JJ.  But 
it  would  have  been  easier  to  confirm  the  impression  of 
licentiousness  than   to  multiply   specimens   of  delicate 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG       167 

sentiment,  had  I  chosen  to  ransack  the  whole  stores  of 
the  Carm'tna  Bur  ana. 

^  It  is  not  necessary  to  censure  their  lack  of  so-called  (t*^^ 
chivalrous  woman-worship.  That  artificial  mood  of 
emotion,  though  glorified  by  the  literary  art  of  greatest 
poets,  has  something  pitiably  unreal,  incurably  morbid, 
in  its  mysticism.  But,  putting  this  aside,  we  are  still 
bound  to  notice  the  absence  of  that  far  more  human 
self-devotion  of  man  to  woman  which  forms  a  con- 
spicuous element  in  the  Arthurian  romances.  The  love 
of  Tristram  for  Iseult,  of  Lancelot  for  Guinevere,  of 
Beaumains  for  his  lady,  is  alien  to  the  Goliardic  con- 
ception of  intersexual  relations.  Nowhere  do  we  find 
a  trace  of  Arthur's  vow  imposed  upon  his  knights : 
"  never  to  do  outrage,  .  .  .  and  alway  to  do  ladies, 
damosels,  and  gentlewomen  succour  upon  pain  of  death," 
This  manly  respect  for  women,  which  was,  if  not  pre- 
cisely the  purest,  yet  certainly  the  most  fruitful  social 
impulse  of  the  Middle  Ages,  receives  no  expression  in 
the  Carmina  Vagorum, 

The  reason  is  not  far  to  seek.  The  Clerici  were  a 
class  debarred  from  domesticity,  devoted  in  theory  to 
celibacy,  in  practice  incapable  of  marriage.  They  were 
not  so  much  unsocial  or  anti-social  as  extra-social  ;  and 
while  they  gave  a  loose  rein  to  their  appetites,  they 
respected  none  of  those  ties,  anticipated  none  of  those 
home  pleasures,  which  consecrate  the  animal  desires  in 
everyday  existence  as  we  know  it.  One  of  their  most 
popular  poems  is  a  brutal  monastic  diatribe  on  matrimony, 
fouler  in  its  stupid  abuse  of  women,  more  unmanly  in  its 
sordid  imputations,  than  any  satire  which  emanated  from 


(/ 


\ 


.^  ^ 


i   4 


1 68       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

the  corruption  of  Imperial  Rome.^  The  cynicism  of  this 
exhortation  against  marriage  forms  a  proper  supplement 
to  the  other  kind  of  cynicism  which  emerges  in  the 
lyrics  of  triumphant  seducers  and  light  lovers. 
i ,  ^  But  why  then  have  I  taken  the  trouble  to  translate 
these  songs,  and  to  present  them  in  such  profusion  to  a 
modern  audience  ?  It  is  because,  after  making  all  allov/- 
ances  for  their  want  of  great  or  noble  feeling,  due  to  the 
peculiar  medium  from  which  they  sprang,  they  are  in 
many  ways  realistically  beautiful  and  in  a  strict  sense 
true  to  vulgar  human  nature.  They  are  the  spontaneous 
expression  of  careless,  wanton,  unreilective  youth.  And 
all  this  they  were,  too,  in  an  age  which  we  are  apt  to 
regard-  as  incapable  of  these  very  qualities. 

The  defects  I  have  been  at  pains  to  indicate  render 
the  Goliardic  poems  remarkable  as  documents  for  the 
right  understanding  of  the  brilliant  Renaissance  epoch 
which  was  destined  to  close  the  Middle  Ages.  To  the 
best  of  them  we  may  with  certainty  assign  the  seventy- 
five  years  between  1 150  and  1225.  In  that  period,  so 
fruitful  of  great  efforts  and  of  great  results  in  the  fields 
of  politics  and  thought  and  literature,  efforts  and  results 
foredoomed  to  partial  frustration  and  to  perverse  mis- 
application— in  that  potent  space  of  time,  so  varied  in 
its  intellectual  and  social  manifestations,  so  pregnant 
with  good  and  evil,  so  rapid  in  mutations,  so  inde- 
terminate between  advance  and  retrogression — this 
Goliardic  poetry  stands  alone.  It  occupies  a  position 
of  unique  and  isolated,  if  limited,  interest ;  because  it 
was  no  outcome  of  feudalism  or  ecclesiasticism  ;  because 

^   GoUas  de  Conjuge  non  ducenda,  Wright's  JMapes,  p.  77. 


WINE,   WOMEN,   AND    SONG       169 

it  has  no  tincture  of  chivalrous  or  mystic  piety  ;  because 
it  implies  no  metaphysical  determination  ;  because  it  is 
pagan  in  the  sense  of  being  natural ;  because  it  is 
devoid  of  allegory,  and,  finally,  because  it  is  emphatically 
humanistic. 

In  these  respects  it  detaches  itself  from  the  artistic 
and  literary  phenomena  of  the  century  which  gave  it 
birth.  In  these  respects  it  anticipates  the  real  eventual 
Renaissance. 

There  are,  indeed,  points  of  contact  between  the  Stu- 
dents* Songs  and  other  products  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
Scholastic  quibblings  upon  words  ;  reiterated  common- 
places about  spring ;  the  brutal  contempt  for  villeins ; 
the  frequent  employment  of  hymn-rhythms  and  pre- 
occupation with  liturgical  phrases — these  show  that  the 
Wandering  Scholars  were  creatures  of  their  age.  But 
the  qualities  which  this  lyrical  literature  shares  with  that 
of  the  court,  the  temple,  or  the  schools  are  mainly 
superficial ;  whereas  the  vital  inspiration,  the  specific 
flavour,  which  render  it  noteworthy,  are  distinct  and 
self-evolved.  It  is  a  premature,  an  unconscious  effort 
made  by  a  limited  class  to  achieve  per  saltum  what  was 
slowly  and  laboriously  wrought  out  by  whole  nations  in 
the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.  Too  precocious, 
too  complete  within  too  narrow  limits,  it  was  doomed 
to  sterility.  Not  the  least  singular  fact  about  it  is 
that  though  the  Carmina  Vagorum  continued  to  be 
appreciated,  they  were  neither  imitated  nor  developed  to 
any  definite  extent  after  the  period  which  I  have 
indicated.  They  fell  still-born  upon  the  unreceptive 
soil  of  European  culture  at  that  epoch.      Yet  they  fore- 


I70       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

shadowed  the  mental  and  moral  attitude  which  Europe 
was  destined  to  assume  when  Italy  through  humanism 
gave  its  tone  to  the  Renaissance. 

The  Renaissance,  in  Italy  as  elsewhere,  had  far  more 
serious  aims  and  enthusiasms  in  the  direction  of  science, 
refined  self-culture,  discoveries,  analysis  of  man  and 
nature,  than  have  always  been  ascribed  to  it.  The  men 
of  that  epoch  did  more  hard  work  for  the  world, 
conferred  more  sterling  benefits  on  their  posterity,  than 
those  who  study  it  chiefly  from  the  point  of  view  of 
art  are  ready  to  admit.  But  the  mental  atmosphere 
in  which  those  heroes  lived  and  wrought  was  one  of 
carelessness  with  regard  to  moral  duties  and  religious 
aspirations,  of  exuberant  delight  in  pleasure  as  an  object 
of  existence.  The  glorification  of  the  body  and  the 
senses,  the  repudiation  of  an  ascetic  tyranny  which  had 
long  in  theory  imposed  impossible  abstentions  on  the 
carnal  man,  was  a  marked  feature  in  their  conception  of 
the  world ;  and  connected  with  this  was  a  return  in  no 
merely  superficial  spirit  to  the  antique  paganism  of 
Greece  and  Rome. 

These  characteristics  of  the  Renaissance  we  find 
already  outlined  with  surprising  definiteness,  and  at  the 
same  time  with  an  almost  childlike  naivete,  a  careless, 
mirth-provoking  nonchalance,  in  the  Carmina  Vagorum. 
They  remind  us  of  the  Italian  lyrics  which  Lorenzo  de' 
Medici  and  Poliziano  wrote  for  the  Florentine  populace  ; 
and  though  in  form  and  artistic  intention  they  diflrer 
from  the  Latin  verse  of  that  period,  their  view  of  life 
is  not  dissimilar  to  that  of  a  Pontano  or  a  Beccadelli. 
Some  folk  may  regard  the  things  I  have  presented  to 


WINE,   WOMEN,  AND   SONG       171 

their  view  as  ugly  or  insignificant,  because  they  lack  the 
higher  qualities  of  sentiment ;  others  may  over-value 
them,  for  precisely  the  same  reason.  They  seem  to  me 
noteworthy  as  the  first  unmistakable  sign  of  a  change  in 
modern  Europe  which  was  inevitable  and  predestined, 
as  the  first  literary  effort  to  restore  the  moral  attitude 
of  antiquity  which  had  been  displaced  by  medieval 
Christianity.  I  also  feel  the  special  relation  which 
they  bear  to  English  poetry  of  the  Elizabethan  age — 
a  relation  that  has  facilitated  their  conversion  into 
our  language. 

That  Wandering  Students  of  the  twelfth  century 
should  have  transcended  the  limitations  of  their  age ; 
that  they  should  have  absorbed  so  many  elements  of 
life  into  their  scheme  of  natural  enjoyment  as  the  artists 
and  scholars  of  the  fifteenth  ;  that  they  should  have 
theorised  their  appetites  and  impulses  with  Valla,  have 
produced  masterpieces  of  poetry  to  rival  Ariosto's,  or 
criticisms  of  society  in  the  style  of  Rabelais,  was  not 
to  be  expected.  What  their  lyrics  prove  by  anticipa- 
tion is  the  sincerity  of  the  so-called  paganism  of  the 
Renaissance.  When  we  read  them,  we  perceive  that 
that  quality  was  substantially  independent  of  the  classical 
revival ;  though  the  influences  of  antique  literature  were 
eagerly  seized  upon  as  useful  means  for  strengthening 
and  giving  tone  to  an  already  potent  revolt  of  nature 
against  hypocritical  and  palsy-stricken  forms  of  spiritual 
despotism. 


APPENDIX 

NOTE  ON  THE  «'ORDO  VAGORUM  "  AND  THE 
'«ARCHIPOETA." 

See  Section  vii,  pp.  16—ZZ,  abo've. 

It  seems  desirable  that  I  should  enlarge  upon  some 
topics  which  I  treated  somewhat  summarily  in  Section 
vii.  I  assumed  that  the  Wandering  Scholars  regarded 
themselves  as  a  kind  of  Guild  or  Order ;  and  for  this 
assumption  the  Songs  Nos.  i,  2,  3,  translated  in  Section 
xiii.  are  a  sufficient  warrant.  Yet  the  case  might  be 
considerably  strengthened.  In  the  Sequentia  falsi  evan- 
gelii  secundum  marcam  argcnti^  we  read  of  the  Gens 
Lusorum  or  Tribe  of  Gamesters,  which  corresponds  to 
the  Secta  Dec'ii^  the  Ordo  Fagorum,  and  the  Famtlia 
Gol'tae.  Again,  in  Wright's  Walter  Mapes  ^  there  is 
an  epistle  written  from  England  by  one  Richardus 
Goliardus  to  Omnibus  in  Gallia  Goliae  discipulis^  introduc- 
ing a  friend,  asking  for  information  ordo  vester  qualis 
est,  and  giving  for  the  reason  of  this  request  ne  magis  in 
ordine  indiscrete  vivam.  He  addresses  his  French 
comrades  as  pueri  Goliae,  and  winds  up  with  good  wishes 
for  the  socios  sanctae  confratriae.  Proofs  might  be 
multiplied  that  the  Wandering  Students  in  Germany 
also  regarded  themselves  as  a  confraternity,  with  special 

1   Grimm's  GeJkhte  des  Mittelalters,  p.  232. 
2  Carm.  Bur. ,  p.  254.  ^  Page  69. 

172 


APPENDIX  173 

rules  and  ordinances.  Of  this,  the  curious  parody  of 
an  episcopal  letter,  issued  in  1 209  by  Surianus,  Praesul 
et  Archipnmas^  to  the  'vag'i  clerici  of  Austria,  Styria, 
Bavaria,  and  Moravia  is  a  notable  example.^ 

I  have  treated  Golias  as  the  eponymous  hero  of  this 
tribe,  the  chief  of  this  confraternity.  But  it  ought  to 
be  said  that  the  name  Golias  occurs  principally  in 
English  MSS.,  where  the  Goliardic  poems  are  ascribed 
to  Golias  Episcopus,  Elsewhere  the  same  personage  is 
spoken  of  as  PrimaSf  which  is  a  title  of  dignity  applying 
to  a  prelate  with  jurisdiction  superior  even  to  that  of  an 
archbishop.  Grimm  ^  quotes  this  phrase  from  a  German 
chronicle  :  Primas  vagus  multos  versus  edidit  magistrales. 
In  the  Sequent'ia  falsi  evangdii  ^  we  fmd  twice  repeated 
Primas  autem  qui  dicitur  vilissimus.  The  Venetian 
codex  from  which  Grimm  drew  some  of  his  texts  * 
attributes  the  Dispute  of  Thetis  and  Lyaeus  and  the 
Advice  against  Matrimony^  both  of  which  passed  in 
England  under  the  name  of  Golias  and  afterwards  of 
Walter  Map,  to  Primas  Presbyter, 

"With  regard  to  this  Primas,  it  is  important  to  mention 
that  Fra  Salimbene  in  his  Chronicle^  gives  a  succinct 
account  of  him  under  the  date  1233.  It  runs  as  follows  : 
Fuit  his  temporihus  Primas  canonicus  coloniensis,  magnus 
trutannus  et  magnus  trufator,  et  maximus  versifcator  et 
veloXf  quif  si  dedisset  cor  suum  ad  diligendum  Deum^ 
magnus    in    litteratura    divina   fuisset,     et    utilis    valde 

1  Giesebrecht  in  Allg.  Monatschrift,  Jan.  1853,  p.  35. 

2  Op.  cit.,  p.  182.  2  Ibid.,  p.  232. 
^  Ibid,,  pp.  238,  239. 

Published  at  Parma,  1857, 


174       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

Ecclesiae  Dei.  Cujus  Apocalypsiniy  quamfecerat^  viJiy  et 
alia  scripta  plura.  After  this  passage  follow  some 
anecdotes,  with  quotations  of  verses  extemporised  by 
Primas,  and  lastly  the  whole  of  the  Confession,  trans- 
lated by  me  at  p.  53  above.  Thus  Salimbene,  who 
was  almost  a  contemporary  author,  attributes  to  Primas 
two  of  the  most  important  poems  which  passed  in 
England  under  the  name  of  Golias,  while  the  Venetian 
MS.  ascribes  two  others  of  the  same  class  to  Primas 
Presbyter.  It  is  also  very  noteworthy  that  Salimbene 
expressly  calls  this  Primas  a  Canon  of  Cologne. 

That  this  poet,  whoever  he  was,  had  attained  to 
celebrity  in  Italy  (as  well  as  in  Germany)  under  the 
title  of  Primas,  appears  also  from  the  following  passage 
of  a  treatise  by  Thomas  of  Capua  ^  on  the  Art  of 
Writing  :  Dictaminum  vero  tria  sunt  genera  auctoribus 
diffinita,  prosaicum  scilicet^  metrtcum  et  rithmicum  ;  pro- 
saicum  ut  Cassiodori,  metricum  ut  J^irgdii,  rithmicum  ut 
Primatis.  Boccaccio  was  in  all  probability  referring  to 
the  same  Primas  in  the  tale  he  told  about  Primasso^ 
who  is  described  as  a  man  of  European  reputation,  and 
a  great  and  rapid  versifier.  It  is  curious  that  just  as 
Giraldus  seems  to  have  accepted  Golias  as  the  real  name 
of  this  poet,^  so  Fra  Salimbene,  Thomas  of  Capua, 
and  Boccaccio  appear  to  use  Primas  as  a  Christian 
name. 

The  matter  becomes  still  more  complicated  when  we 
find,  as  we  do,  some  of  the  same  poems  attributed  in 
France  to  Walter  of  Lille,  in  England  to  Walter  Map, 

1  See  Novati,  Carmina  Medii  Aevi,  p.  8,  note. 

2  Decameron,  i.  7.  ^  See  above,  p.  21, 


APPENDIX  175 

and  further  current  under  yet  another  title  of  dignity, 
that  of  Archipoda?- 

We  can  hardly  avoid  the  conclusion  that  by  Golias 
Episcopus,  Primas,  and  Archipoeta  one  and  the  same 
person,  occupying  a  prominent  post  in  the  Order,  was 
denoted.  He  was  the  head  of  the  Goliardic  family, 
the  Primate  of  the  Wandering  Students'  Order,  the 
Archpoet  of  these  lettered  minstrels.  The  rare  excel- 
lence of  the  compositions  ascribed  to  him  caused  them 
to  be  spread  abroad,  multiplied,  and  imitated  in  such 
fashion  that  it  is  now  impossible  to  feel  any  certainty 
about  the  personality  which  underlay  these  titles. 

Though  we  seem  frequently  upon  the  point  of  touch- 
ing the  real  man,  he  constantly  eludes  our  grasp.  Who 
he  was,  whether  he  was  one  or  many,  remains  a  mystery. 
Whether  the  poems  which  bear  one  or  other  of  his 
changing  titles  were  really  the  work  of  a  single  writer, 
is  also  a  matter  for  fruitless  conjecture.  We  may  take 
it  for  granted  that  he  was  not  Walter  Map  ;  for  Map 
was  not  a  Canon  of  Cologne,  not  a  follower  of  Reinald 
von  Dassel,  not  a  mark  for  the  severe  scorn  of  Giraldus. 
Similar  reasoning  renders  it  more  than  improbable  that 
the  Golias  of  Giraldus,  the  Primas  of  Salimbene,  and 
the  petitioner  to  Reinald  should  have  been  Walter  of 
Lille.2 

At  the  same  time  it  is  singular  that  the  name  of 
Walter  should  twice  occur  in  Goliardic  poems  of  a  good 

^  Grimm,  op.  cit.,  p.  189  ^Z  seq. 

2  Giesebrecht  identifies  Walter  of  Lille  with  the  Archipoeta. 
But  he  seems  to  be  unacquainted  with  Sulimbene's  Chronicle, 
and  I  agree  with  Hubatsch  that  he  has  not  made  out  his  point 


176       WINE,  WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

period.  One  of  these  is  the  famous  and  beautiful 
lament : — 

*'  Versa  est  in  luctum — cithara  Waltheri," 

This  exists  in  the  MS.  of  the  Carmina  Burana^  but  not 
in  the  Paris  MS.  of  Walter's  poems  edited  by  Miildner. 
It  contains  allusions  to  the  poet's  ejection  from  his  place 
in  the  Church — a  misfortune  which  actually  befell 
Walter  of  Lille.  Grimm  has  printed  another  poem, 
Saepe  de  miseria,  in  which  the  name  of  Walter  occui's.^ 
It  is  introduced  thus  : 

"Hoc  Gualtherus  sub-prior 
Jubet  in  decretis." 

Are  we  to  infer  from  the  designation  Sub-prior  that  the 
Walter  of  this  poem  held  a  post  in  the  Order  inferior 
to  that  of  the  Primas  ? 

It  is  of  importance  in  this  connection  to  bear  in  mind 
that  five  of  the  poems  attributed  in  English  MSS.  to 
Golias  and  Walter  Map,  namely,  Missus  sum  in  vineam, 
Multiformis  hominum,  Fallax  est  et  mobilis,  A  tauro  tor~ 
rida,  Heliconis  rivulo,  Tanto  viro  locuturi,  among  which 
is  the  famous  Apocalypse  ascribed  by  Salimbene  to 
Primas,  are  given  to  Walter  of  Lille  in  the  Paris  MS. 
edited  by  Miildner.^  They  are  distinguished  by  a 
marked  unity  of  style  ;  and  what  is  also  significant,  a 
lyric  in  this  Paris  MS.,  Dum  Gualterus  aegrotaret,  intro- 
duces the  poet's  name  in  the  same  way  as  the  Versa  est 
in  luctum  of  the  Carmina  Burana,  Therefore,  without 
identifying  Walter  of  Lille  with  the  Primas,  Archipoeta, 

^  Op.  cit.,  p.  235,  also  in  Carm.  Bur.,  p.  74. 
2  Hannover,  1859. 


APPENDIX  177 

and  Golias,  we  must  allow  that  his  place  in  Goliardic 
literature  is  very  considerable.  But  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  the  weight  of  evidence  favours  chiefly  the 
ascription  of  serious  and  satiric  pieces  to  his  pen.  It  is 
probable  that  the  Archipoeta,  the  follower  of  Reinald 
von  Dassel,  the  man  who  composed  the  most  vigorous 
Goliardic  poem  we  possess,  and  gave  the  impulse  of  his 
genius  to  that  style  of  writing,  was  not  the  Walter  of 
the  Versa  est  in  luctum  or  of  Dum  Gualterus  aegrotaret. 
That  Walter  must  have  been  somewhat  his  junior  ;  and 
it  is  not  unreasonable  to  assume  that  he  was  Walter  of 
Lille,  who  may  perhaps  be  further  identified  with  the 
Gualtherus  sub-prior  of  the  poem  on  the  author's  pov- 
erty. This  Walter's  Latin  designation,  Gualtherus  de 
Insula^  helps,  as  I  have  observed  above,i  to  explain  the 
attribution  of  the  Goliardic  poems  in  general  to  Walter 
Map  by  English  scribes  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

After  all,  it  is  safer  to  indulge  in  no  constructive 
speculations  where  the  matter  of  inquiry  is  both  vague 
and  meagre.  One  thing  appears  tolerably  manifest ; 
that  many  hands  of  very  various  dexterity  contributed 
to  form  the  whole  body  of  songs  which  we  call 
Goliardic.  It  is  also  clear  that  the  Clerici  Vagi 
considered  themselves  a  confraternity,  and  that  they 
burlesqued  the  institutions  of  a  religious  order,  pretend- 
ing to  honour  and  obey  a  primate  or  bishop,  to  whom 
the  nickname  of  Golias  was  given  at  the  period  in  which 
they  flourished  most.  Viewed  in  his  literary  capacity, 
this  chief  was  further  designated  as  the  Archpoet.  Of  his 
personality  we  know  as  little  as  we  do  of  that  of  Homer. 

^  Page  22. 

N 


178       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 


BOOKS  ON  GOLIARDIC  LITERATURE 

Carmina  Burana.     Stuttgart.     1847. 

Thomas  Wright.     The  Latin   Poems  commonly  attributed 
to  Walter  Mapes.     Camden  Society.     1841. 

Anecdota  Literaria.     London.   1844. 

Early  Mysteries,  etc.     London.      1844. 

Edelstand    du    Meril.       Poesies    Populaires    Latines     Ante- 

rieures  au  Douzi^me  Siecle.     Paris.    1843. 

Poesies    Populaires  Latines  du  Moyen  Age.      Paris. 

1847.  

Poesies  Inedites  du  Moyen  Age.    Paris.     1854. 

Jacob  Grimm.       Gedichte  des  Mittelalters  auf  Kbnig  Fried- 
rich  I.,  den  Staufer.      Berlin.    1843. 

H.    Hagen.       Carmina    Medii    Aevi    Max.    Part.    Inedita. 

Bern.      1877. 
F,  Novati.     Carmina  Medii  Aevi,     Firenze.   1883. 
Mone,     Anzeiger,  vii. 
W.  Muldener.     Die  Zehn  Gedichte  von  Walther  von  Lille. 

Hannover.    1859. 
Champollion-Figeac.     Hilarii  Versus  et  Ludi.    Paris.    1838. 
Gaudeamus.     Leipzig.      1879. 
Carmina  Clericorum.     Heilbronn.    1880. 
A.  P.  Von  Barnstein.     Carmina  Burana  Selecta.    1880. 

Ubi  sunt  qui  ante  nos  ?      Wiirtzburg.   1881. 

Giesebrecht.     Die    Vaganten.      Alig.   Monatscrift   fiir   W. 

und  K.     1853. 
O.    Hubatsch.       Die   Lateinischen    Vagantenlieder.      Gor- 

litz.    1870. 
A,  Bartoli.     I  Precursori  del  Rinascimento.     Firenze.   1876. 
Allgemeines  Deutsches  Commersbuch. 


APPENDIX 


179 


TABLE  OF  SONGS  I'RANSLATED  IN  THIS 
VOLUME 

N.  B. — In  order  to  facilitate  the  comparison  between  my 
translations  and  the  originals,  I  have  made  the  following 
table.  The  first  column  gives  the  number  of  the  song  and 
the  second  the  page  in  this  book  ;  the  third  column  gives 
the  beginning  of  each  song  in  English  ;  the  fourth  gives 
the  beginning  of  each  song  in  Latin.  The  references  in  the 
fifth  column  are  to  the  little  anthology  called  Gaudeamus 
(Leipzig,  Teubner,  1879);  those  in  the  sixth  column  are  to 
the  printed  edition  of  the  Benedictbeuern  Codex,  which  goes 
by  the  title  of  Carmina  Burana  (Stuttgart,  auf  Kosten  des 
Literarischen  Vereins,  Hering  &  Co.  printers,  1847). 


No. 


I 
2 

3 
4 
5 
6 

7 

8 

9 
10 
II 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 

17 

18 

19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 

27 
28 
29 
30 
31 
32 


Page 


40 

45 
48 

50 
53 
63 
64 
66 
66 
67 
68 
69 
70 

71 

73 
74 
75 
76 

77 
78 
81 
82 
84 
87 
87 
89 

93 
96 
100 
106 
107 
109 


English. 


Latin. 


At  the  mandate 

Once,  it  was 

I,  a  wandering  . 

We  in  our  . 

Boiling  in  my     . 

Spring  is  coming 

These  hours  of  . 

Take  your  pleasure 

Winter's  untruth 

Winter,  now 

Now  the  fields   . 

Spring  returns   . 

Vernal  hours 

Hail  thou  . 

Summer  sweet   . 

The  blithe  young  year 

Now  the  sun 

In  the  spring 

With  so  sweet    . 

Wide  the  lime-tree 

Yonder  choir  of 

Meadows  bloom 

Cast  aside  . 

There  went  out . 

In  the  summer's 

All  the  woods     . 

When  the  lamp . 

In  the  spring-time 

On  their  steeds  . 

Take  thou  . 
I  Come  to  me 
j  Lydia  bright 


Cum  in  orbem 
Olim  nostrum 
Exul  ego 
Nos  vagabunduli 
Aestuans 
Ver  redit 
Tempus  est 
Congaudentes 
Vetus  error 
Cedit  hiems    . 
Jamjam  virent 
Ecce  gratum  . 
Vernum  tempus 
Salve  ver 
Dum  aestas     . 
Anni  novi 
Omnia  sol 
Veris  dulcis 
De  pollicito     . 
Late  pandit 
Ecce  chorus    . 
Virent  prata    . 
Oniittamus  studia 
Exiit  diluculo 
Aestivali  sub  . 
Florent  omnes 
Dum  Dianae  . 
Anni  parte 
Equitabant 
Suscipe  Flos   . 
Veni  veni 
Lydia  bella     . 


Gattd. 
Page 

Car.   i 
Bur. 

Page 

3 
6 

251 

178 

50 

195 
34 
88 

67 
178 

100 

211 

86 

166 

85 

84 
81 

177 
184 
183 

•  •• 

97 

193 
196 

... 

145 

109 

177 

103 

195 
206 

185 
118 

98 
82 

189 
137 

120 

155 

125 
93 

145 
182 

... 

124 

... 

15s 
162 

102 

217 

208 

96 

( 

i8o       WINE,   WOMEN,   AND   SONG 

TABLE  OF   SONGS— confirmed 


No. 

Pa^e 

Eftglish. 

Latin. 

Gaud. 

Car. 
Bur. 

Page 

Page 

'   33 

III 

When  a  young  man   . 

Si  puer  cum     . 

116 

215 

34 

112 

Rudely  blows     . 

Saevit  aurae    . 

-•* 

148 

■   35 

114 

Love  rules .... 

Amor  tenet 

91 

150 

36 

116 

List,  my  girl 

Non  contrecto 

118 

150 

'   37 

117 

Think  no  evil     . 

Ludo  cum 

104 

^51 

38 

119 

With  song  I        .         .         . 

Sic  mea  fata    . 

117 

229 

39 

120 

False  the  tongue 

Lingua  mendax 

III 

230 

40 

123 

A  mortal  anguish 

Humor  letalis 

114 

169 

41 

126 

Up  to  this  time 

Hue  usque 

119 

... 

42 

127 

Oh,  of  love 

0  comes 

225 

43 

128 

Sweet  native  soil 

Duke  solum    . 

no 

i63 

44 

130 

Oh,  my  father    . 

Heus  pater 

175 

172 

45 

134 

Wine  the  good  . 

Vinum  bonum 

17 

46 

135 

In  dulci  jubilo   . 

In  dulci  jubilo 

201 

... 

*47 

137 

Ho,  all  ye  . 

•  ■. 

... 

... 

48 

138 

Laurel-crowned 

Lauriger  Horatius  . 

74 

... 

49 

139 

Sweet  in     . 

Dulce  cum 

74 

... 

50 

140 

Ho,  comrades    . 

0  consocii 

87 

198 

51 

143 

Laying  truth  bare 

Denudata 

57 

232 

52 

149 

Topers  in  and  out 

Potatores 

27 

240 

53 

152 

Time  was  .... 

Olim  latus 

188 

173 

54 

153 

While  a  boor 

Rusticusdum. 

189 

55 

157 

I  am  the  Abbot 

Ego  sum  Abbas 

73 

,254 

ts6 

158 

Hear,  0  thou     . 

Audi  Tellus    . 

57 

159 

While  life's 

Dumjuventus 

135 

"s 

58 

160 

This  vile  world  . 

Iste  mundus    . 

5 

59 

162 

De  contemptu    . 

Scribere  proposui    . 

129 

60 

164 

Let  us  live  then 

Gaudeamus  igitur  . 

I 

... 

*  The  original  of  this  song  will  be  found  in  Geiger,  Humanismus 
7tnd  Renaissance,  p.  414. 
t  The  original  will  be  found  in  Moll,  Hymnariutn,  p.  138. 


Richard  Clay  &■  Sons,  Limited,  London  and  Bungay. 


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